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Kotaku: Child Predators Accused Of Using Nintendo's SwapNote Service

S

StreetsAhead

Member
http://kotaku.com/child-predators-were-using-nintendos-swapnote-service-1459304126

According to Yomiuri Online, two men have been arrested for performing "improper acts" in hotel rooms with the same 12 year-old girl on multiple occasions earlier this year. The girl met both men, aged 49 and 36, through her 3DS. Yomiuri Online doesn't specifically mention SwapNote. A Mainichi News report, however, does.

Mainichi reports that charges for child pornography have also been filed against another man, 44, who had allegedly two girls - then aged 11 to 12 - send nude photos through SwapNote, or "Itsu no Ma ni Koukan Nikki" (いつの間に交換日記) as it's called in Japan. The man has confessed to doing so.
Click to expand...

In the above articles, both Yomiuri and Mainichi note that parents had initially turned off the 3DS's internet function, but the children had turned it back on.

Mainichi adds that there are other reports of the arrest - for statutory rape and indecency through compulsion - of predators apparently using the SwapNote function to prey on children.
Click to expand...

Japanese articles:
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20131105-00001107-yom-soci
http://mainichi.jp/area/ibaraki/news/20131106ddlk08040158000c.html

Lock if old.

Frodo said:
Looking at how many posters have no idea of how the Parental control work, it would be a good idea to add to the OP that the Parental Control is not a hidden obscure feature that you need to dig through menus and sub-menus to find. At THE VERY FIST TIME you switch the system on, it will go through explaining what the Parental Control is, how it works and it asks if you want to turn it on.

Basically every form of interaction can be blocked using the Parental Control. It is a very solid method and, as already posted, it will leave all these features or only the features you previously specified behind a password, that kind of works like the PIN of your credit card, with limited amount of tries.

Should a parent want to prevent their children to use any application that allows interaction with strangers, or Swap Note, which, per se, doesn't, they would be able to do so in a fairly straight forward manner. I believe Nintendo's Parental Control system alone prevents Nintendo to be blamed for what happened. The fact that they so quickly acted to shut the service down also shows their commitment in keeping their environment safe, which at this point, based on how Nintendo focus to appeal as a family brand, are almost entirely justified.
Click to expand...
 
L

Lumyst

Member
I can only imagine how Nintendo would feel if their service were continued to be used for purposes like this after having it brought to their attention. Sure people say it's inevitable that the internet leads to nefarious uses, but if Nintendo can at least take action regarding their own little corner of their internet, then it's understandable that they would take that action.
 
V

Vyer

Member
Fucking sad. It's unfortunate to lose the service, but I can see where Nintendo is coming from here. Particularly since their handheld business is so family oriented.
 
E

eudaemonic

Member
Man, I hope those guys die from something similar to seastar wasting syndrome for going after young girls and ruining my SwapNote fun.
 
V

Vibranium

Banned
Yeah, this is terrible. Ugh, I hate scum who ruin lives and fun services that good people use.

It was right for Nintendo to pull Swapnote in light of this, though I hope it comes back ASAP or through Miiverse.
 
I

Infernal Monkey

Member
In the above articles, both Yomiuri and Mainichi note that parents had initially turned off the 3DS's internet function, but the children had turned it back on.
Click to expand...

*Flicks the 3DS' Wi-Fi switch off* "There, safe forever"
 
D

Deified Data

Banned
How were these girls Swap Noting with strangers?

I mean, isn't the point of Nintendo's restrictive friend code function meant to ward off situations like this?
 
D

dc89

Member
StreetsAhead said:
That's poorly worded on Kotaku's part, the Japanese article says the system itself was set so it couldn't go on the internet, but the girl turned it back on. Not just flicking the switch.
Click to expand...

Do the parental controls restrict this? Because I think that is the smart thing to do.
 
D

Darryl

Banned
this is their worst nightmare. no wonder they freaked and shut it down right away. i'm surprised they managed to react to it so early.
 
B

Bulbagarden

Member
Sadly not unexpected, given the lack of notice before the service got closed down. They would've wanted to make sure they'd taken action before media reports of what happened were widespread.

What's most interesting about this is that it doesn't seem a case of bad parenting, as many people seemed to previously suggest. The parents here had done the responsible thing and turned off internet functions. Not exactly their fault if their kids were pulling a fast one on them by re-enabling it.
 
A

alienator

Member
If we really start shutting down services because of child predators, we might aswell shut the internet down. And close playgrounds.

I know cases of xbox live and psn too. and pc.

This is not a solution.
 
A

ArkkAngel007

Member
dc89 said:
Do the parental controls restrict this? Because I think that is the smart thing to do.
Click to expand...

Yes they do, which of course requires a pin. Likely the parents shared the pin with the kid, maybe because they felt she was old enough to access those features.

Edit: Internet browser; display of 3D images; sharing images/audio/video/long text data; online interaction; street pass; and friend registration can all be restricted through parental control. They may have just checked off the internet and not considered some of the other options.
 
A

adamantypants

Member
Bulbagarden said:
Sadly not unexpected, given the lack of notice before the service got closed down. They would've wanted to make sure they'd taken action before media reports of what happened were widespread.

What's most interesting about this is that it doesn't seem a case of bad parenting, as many people seemed to previously suggest. The parents here had done the responsible thing and turned off internet functions. Not exactly their fault if their kids were pulling a fast one on them by re-enabling it.
Click to expand...
Yeah this.

Do I have such low faith in people that as soon as I heard that it was shut down I knew it was probably this exact situation?
 
U

Uncle Rupee

Banned
Bulbagarden said:
Not exactly their fault if their kids were pulling a fast one on them by re-enabling it.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't it have been impossible for the kid to re-enable it, though? Like at least the parental control should be password protected, shouldn't it? This is just common sense stuff that Nintendo seemingly always fails at.
 
S

Seik

Banned
I thought it was only because of people posting dicks and stuff.

This is waaaay more intense, fuck, justifies pretty much everything.

Ugh, gross. :(
 
H

Herb Alpert

Banned
Disgusting...
Nintendo must cover themselves with a real efficient system for parental control. Because dirty bastards like that will always be there somewhere. They can't be a reason for not using online.

Just create accounts and use some kind of moderation.
 
C

CTLance

Member
Ugh. Poor kid.

Explains Nintendo's reaction, and I fear what influence this sad event will have on their future plans. Also, can you imagine designing a system and then finding out it was used this way? I'd probably contemplate suicide.
 
P

Princess Viola

Member
Uncle Rupee said:
Shouldn't it have been impossible for the kid to re-enable it, though? Like at least the parental control should be password protected, shouldn't it? This is just common sense stuff that Nintendo seemingly always fails at.
Click to expand...
The parental controls on 3DS do require a pin to be accessed.
 
D

Darryl

Banned
alienator said:
If we really start shutting down services because of child predators, we might aswell shut the internet down. And close playgrounds.

I know cases of xbox live and psn too. and pc.

This is not a solution.
Click to expand...

the difference here is that the 3ds is actively sold as a product for young children. they feature them starring in all of the advertisements. they blow up children's channels on TV. they have a legal duty to protect that audience. if something like this comes out and nintendo doesn't react, it is just a matter of time before it happens again and that lawsuit isn't going to be pretty nor cheap.
 
A

ArkkAngel007

Member
Uncle Rupee said:
Shouldn't it have been impossible for the kid to re-enable it, though? Like at least the parental control should be password protected, shouldn't it? This is just common sense stuff that Nintendo seemingly always fails at.
Click to expand...

They are password (4 digit pin) protected. Again, parents probably didn't lock off everything they needed to. Streetpass, image sharing, and such are separate from the Internet option.

That or they trusted her with the password after some time.
 
E

Effect

Member
Had a feeling something actually happen and it wasn't just a weird concern. Sad to see the service go but understandable they'd want to kill it in light of this and the negative media coverage they could get.

Hope these guys go away for a long time and these girls get all the help they require.
 
U

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
Sounds like the parents just disabled WiFi rather than using the proper parental controls. Unless the kid managed to get the PIN somehow.
 
K

KHlover

Banned
alienator said:
If we really start shutting down services because of child predators, we might aswell shut the internet down. And close playgrounds.

I know cases of xbox live and psn too. and pc.

This is not a solution.
Click to expand...
Sony and MS are not dependant on their family friendly image. Nintendo is.

Nintendo has taken the right steps so far. Now they need to launch the moderated Miiverse ASAP as a replacement and they're golden.
 
K

Kater

Banned
Thanks, Pedophiles.
Now I can't use the only integrated messaging system of the 3DS.
Ruining kids life and my fun at the same time, well done.
 
T

Tohsaka

Member
It's unfortunate, but this is hardly Nintendo's fault. The 3DS has parental control functions to restrict all kinds of activity, as do the other handhelds and consoles. The same thing could happen on any of them, or Facebook or similar social networking sites, but you don't see those shutting down.
 
F

fernoca

Member
Kinda weird how some are acting surprised at the child pornography stuff, when it was mentioned from the very beginning that pictures of minors were involved.

Though many were quick to reply about dick drawings and lol Nintendo doesn't get the internet. So like many cases people read just the thread title; and since this one mentions "child predators"... NOW it's real!!!.... :p
 
molnizzle

molnizzle

Member
...and to think, I used to feel kinda bad about my meticulously hand-drawn dick illustrations.

I'm like the fucking SwapNote Pope compared to those scumbags.
 
jediyoshi

jediyoshi

Member
Darryl said:
the difference here is that the 3ds is actively sold as a product for young children. they feature them starring in all of the advertisements. they blow up children's channels on TV. they have a legal duty to protect that audience.
Click to expand...

Do they? Would ISPs also be liable for facilitating the actual transmissions as well?
 
C

coolasj19

Why are you reading my tag instead of the title of my post?
I thought the fact that stuff like this happens was just simple connect-the-dots. Nintendo has an extremely child friendly system, and people will prey on that. It's rather disgusting but, it happens. Nintendo can't do anything but push parental controls.
 
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