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[Hours Left]

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.

This is how I feel too, though I think Nintendo does have part of the blame. The parental controls should be a bit more comprehensive, and they must have a proper account system in place.

It was right of them to shut down the service to prevent future problems, but it shouldn't be shut down forever. They need to bite the bullet and do what they should of done years ago and put systems in place to make sure that the console isn't so easy to abuse for nefarious purposes.

 

[thetrin]

Holy shit, Nintendo was right. I totally get Friend Codes now.

 

[HovaHovito]

This is why people shouldnt overreact when stuff gets taken down

Holy shit, Nintendo was right. I totally get Friend Codes now.

Wot

 

[Schnozberry]

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

ISP's are not trying to cultivate children as customers. This has to do with protecting their brand and showing they are dead serious about protecting people from harm in the ways that are within their grasp. The horror someone must feel to see their hard work and vision become so twisted and abused is reason enough to shut down the service.

 

[rpmurphy]

Hopefully this kind of thing will be more difficult to happen with Miiverse. Disgusting people.

 

[zroid]

wellllllllllllllllll shit

 

[AppleMIX]

This is why people shouldnt overreact when stuff gets taken down

Wot

I feel that shutting down a service because a very small portion people are horribly abusing it is kind of a round about way of dealing with it.

 

[thetrin]

This is why people shouldnt overreact when stuff gets taken down

Wot

Their whole reason for friend codes back in the day was that they wanted to prevent child predators from using online accounts to prey on children.

(I'm just being humorous)

 

[SmokyDave]

There's barely a service on the net that paedos won't use to groom kids. Shutting them down still doesn't seem like the appropriate response.

 

[Schnozberry]

I feel that shutting down a service because a very small portion people are horribly abusing it is kind of a round about way of dealing with it.

It might be, but if it stops a pre-teen from getting diddled by an old man I'll learn to deal.

 

[sakipon]

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!!!....

Was it? This OP states "images inappropriate for minors were allegedly being shared". It also continues to explain minors were the ones receiving content.
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=707435

Was it a bad translation then?

 

[Tohsaka]

It might be, but if it stops a pre-teen from getting diddled by an old man I'll learn to deal.

Enabling parental controls would stop this, there's no need to completely get rid of the service for the vast majority of people who use it as intended.

 

[tensuke]

Well that really sucks. You really can't police this sort of thing short of just shutting the whole thing down, like they did. It was a cool feature (well, kind of cool), but abuse like this is just inevitable when you have picture sharing with strangers (I guess they exchanged Friendcodes online?) on handhelds used by so many children. Honestly, I'd be surprised to see Nintendo add it back in after this.

Enabling parental controls would stop this, there's no need to completely get rid of the service for the vast majority of people who use it as intended.

Except the parents did disable internet functionality, presumably through parental controls and not just turning off wifi (which would be dumb).

I agree though, I don't think the service should be shut down for everyone, but I at least understand Nintendo's position and sense of responsibility in this case.

 

[jediyoshi]

This has to do with protecting their brand and showing they are dead serious about protecting people from harm in the ways that are within their grasp.

I'm not looking at it from Nintendo's perspective, that's an obvious result. But the idea that a large segment of the gaming community lambastes Nintendo over stuff as antiquated and obfuscating as friend codes yet immediately turns around when its obvious implications are up is amusing. The logic of the precedents it could be setting aside from legal realities is also pretty humorous.

 

[HovaHovito]

I feel that shutting down a service because a very small portion people are horribly abusing it is kind of a round about way of dealing with it.

Im pretty sure its for investigation purposes and to maybe update the security of the application. Its a service supplied by nintendo that was used for illegal purposes
They clearly have the grounds to take it down



Why must people always make the most exaggerated claims when taking a stance, incoming pages of lol nintendo wants to shut down the internet

 

[StreetsAhead]

Was it? This OP states "images inappropriate for minors were allegedly being shared". It also continues to explain minors were the ones receiving content.
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=707435

Was it a bad translation then?

No, that's what Nintendo said.

 

[Azure Dream]

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

 

[Schnozberry]

Enabling parental controls would stop this, there's no need to completely get rid of the service for the vast majority of people who use it as intended.

Maybe they bring it back later on with enhanced security. Shutting it down while the heat is on is probably coming from their legal department. I would struggle with it just from a moral standpoint.

 

[Conezays]

Wow, terrible news. I feel awful for any of the victims and Nintendo as well. It seems understandable that they nipped the service in the bud after this kind of despicable behaviour.

 

[cw_sasuke]

This is messed up - fucking psychos out there.

 

[ArkkAngel007]

This is how I feel too, though I think Nintendo does have part of the blame. The parental controls should be a bit more comprehensive, and they must have a proper account system in place.

It was right of them to shut down the service to prevent future problems, but it shouldn't be shut down forever. They need to bite the bullet and do what they should of done years ago and put systems in place to make sure that the console isn't so easy to abuse for nefarious purposes.

Agreed with the proper online infrastructure, but the parental controls are pretty comprehensive. What is lacking is probably an explanation to what apps each setting will affect. So for SwapNote: internet, streetpass, spotpass, image/video/longtext should all be locked off. But it isn't exactly clear in when given the options, nor do the apps themselves provide an explanation.

 

[Schnozberry]

I'm not looking at it from Nintendo's perspective, that's an obvious result. But the idea that a large segment of the gaming community lambastes Nintendo over stuff as antiquated and obfuscating as friend codes yet immediately turns around when its obvious implications are up is amusing. The logic of the precedents it could be setting aside from legal realities is also pretty humorous.

Fair point.

 

[Hours Left]

Agreed with the proper online infrastructure, but the parental controls are pretty comprehensive. What is lacking is probably an explanation to what apps each setting will affect. So for SwapNote: internet, streetpass, spotpass, image/video/longtext should all be locked off. But it isn't exactly clear in when given the options, nor do the apps themselves provide an explanation.

They need to have parental controls that cannot be undone from the system alone. It should have to be synced with an online component, or some other outside source.

Or make the password system a lot more in-depth. (A password plus multiple security questions.)

 

[Darryl]

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

i think isps could potentially be at risk for stuff like this if they aren't careful as well. if they start marketing their isps on nickelodeon, do product placement on the disney channel, create kid friendly mascots and let any kid who walks into a store with enough money subscribe for service. i think that after this happens, nintendo as a company is both aware that their products are used by children frequently and their products could be used to harm children. any failure to react could easily fall on their hands.

 

[Tohsaka]

Except the parents did disable internet functionality, presumably through parental controls and not just turning off wifi (which would be dumb).

I agree though, I don't think the service should be shut down for everyone, but I at least understand Nintendo's position and sense of responsibility in this case.

It doesn't really say how they disabled it. If they had actually done it properly by password-protecting it there would be no way the child could've turned it back on.

 

[rpmurphy]

Well that really sucks. You really can't police this sort of thing short of just shutting the whole thing down, like they did. It was a cool feature (well, kind of cool), but abuse like this is just inevitable when you have picture sharing with strangers (I guess they exchanged Friendcodes online?) on handhelds used by so many children. Honestly, I'd be surprised to see Nintendo add it back in after this.

Well... with Animal Crossing on the 3DS, you can meet and chat with random people online... many kids used this as a way to exchange friend codes. And believe me, there are a lot of young kids who do this in the game, so much more prevalent for Japanese kids for some reason. And yeah, that allows them to exchange notes and pictures through Swapnote, which is an unmoderated messaging service.

 

[Thoraxes]

What in the actual fuck.

 

[mollipen]

Obviously terrible what happened, but killing Swapnote isn't the answer. If it was, we'd shut down IM, email, message forums, the entire internet, schools, shopping malls, the outside world, and pretty much all of life.

 

[WrenchNinja]

StreetPass lets you interact with strangers.

So why didn't they shut down streetpass notes?

 

[rpmurphy]

So why didn't they shut down streetpass notes?

You can only swap notes with friends via StreetPass, not with anyone.

 

[Heyt]

Wow. I thought they where closing it because children recieved regular porn through the service. But this is a way bigger issue. Disgusting.

 

[WrenchNinja]

You can only swap notes with friends via StreetPass, not with anyone.

You can put your friend code in your mii's street pass message.

With street pass being a regular occurence in Japan, you would think they would be worried about that.

 

[eudaemonic]

Double checking the parental controls, I discovered you can lock the friends list and change a whole bunch of settings. The tools are there to prevent this from happening as long as you know not to share the pass. Nintendo really just needs to get that message out more.

 

[TaroYamada]

Couldn't the parents have controlled this via parental controls? Why was this a valid reason to ruin the feature for all users?

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

Jesus Christ that's fucked up. It's even worse cause Nintendo's extra sensitive about being so careful about this sort of thing.

Couldn't the parents have controlled this via parental controls? Why was this a valid reason to ruin the feature for all users?

It's extremely unfortunate, but fact is the average parent isn't gonna bother delving through such features. (Or even know how to go about it if they even wanted to.)

 

[rpmurphy]

You can put your friend code in your mii's street pass message.

That's a painful process that requires multiple passes with the same person since each side has to input the other's friend code. And then, if you don't write the message down when you greet the Miis in the plaza, you cannot see it again until the next time you pass that person. That's hardly an issue. It's really Tortimer's Island in AC:NL where Nintendo fucked up big time.

 

[LAA]

Ah, so thats why.. I thought it was just because kids were using these new found swear words on swapnote or them giving their friend codes online to make 3DS friends, which both seemed incredibly stupid and annoying to close a service for, but in this case seems right to do so.

Problem is that I don't really know how Nintendo can fix that... All they can do is provide a means of communication and that means people can and will be abuse the system if they choose. Only presume they can "ban" people from the service or something if they were found to be abusing the system.
Really gutted its closed, I loved the idea of sending stationary for each game and etc etc. Something I notice though... is its only select games and the games are pretty much 99.999% of the time linked to Nintendo in someway. I dont know if 3rd parties can join that system too, but it'd be way more cooler if any game coming to 3DS they can promote for it through swapnote.

 

[WrenchNinja]

That's a painful process that requires multiple passes with the same person since each side has to input the other's friend code. And then, if you don't write the message down when you greet the Miis in the plaza, you cannot see it again until the next time you pass that person. That's hardly an issue. It's really Tortimer's Island in AC:NL where Nintendo fucked up big time.

I don't know, we're talking about Japan here. Multiple passes with the same person doesn't seem that unlikely.

 

[Vermillion]

Wait... how? Don't they need friend codes to make that work?

 

[Clefargle]

PARENTAL CONTROLS

C'mon parents, get it together

 

[Riposte]

You could exchange photos with SwapNote? How do you go from friendcodes to that? Just don't allow photos.

 

[Opinionatedfish]

So, that's why WiFi is disabled in software and not in hardware on the Nintendo 2DS.

But yeah. I thought it had to do with Subsidized Dating.

Which is pretty much what has happened. "Here! Have some extra spending money or new shoes! We're just lonely older men. You will feel like an adult with us."

Here is how I think Nintendo should address the situation.

1. Release a forced patch firmware update that adds a new Terms of Service agreement to Nintendo 3DS that prevents liability on Nintendo's part for online services.
2. Put Swapnote behind an age gate on the eShop.
3. Put up an activation/re-activation patch up for Swapnote that costs $1.00 and includes a new Terms of Service agreement.
4. The patch could also allow a password lock on Swapnote that is separate from the parental controls.

There we go.


Edit: They could also allow us to put the eShop icon inside of a folder and password lock folders. The temporary shutdown is Nintendo complying with police investigators.

 

[Femmeworth]

Obviously terrible what happened, but killing Swapnote isn't the answer. If it was, we'd shut down IM, email, message forums, the entire internet, schools, shopping malls, the outside world, and pretty much all of life.

False equivalencies all up in this post.

 

[jerry1594]

Couldn't the parents have controlled this via parental controls? Why was this a valid reason to ruin the feature for all users?

Because kids are being exposed to paedos, fuck you mean why is this a valid reason?

 

[rpmurphy]

I don't know, we're talking about Japan here. Multiple passes with the same person doesn't seem that unlikely.

In this case, maybe. Nintendo should have prevented people from being able to input their friendcodes in their StreetPass messages in the first place as well.

 

[Afrikan]

maybe I'm just a square bear when it comes to knowing stuff like this, but how does an older man (late 40's) like that get a 12 year old to agree to go inside a hotel room?

and yes, even if there is a chance that the 12 year old is the one pushing for it as well...of course that older man is still 100% responsible for his actions.

 

[tensuke]

Well... with Animal Crossing on the 3DS, you can meet and chat with random people online... many kids used this as a way to exchange friend codes. And believe me, there are a lot of young kids who do this in the game, so much more prevalent for Japanese kids for some reason. And yeah, that allows them to exchange notes and pictures through Swapnote, which is an unmoderated messaging service.

Ah...Well yeah that would do it. It's difficult, I think, to find a balance between social connectivity and moral platitudes as technology increases and makes transfer of information easier and more widespread. Especially with a company like Nintendo and their historical tradition of family values in their consoles and first party titles.

 

[PhantomR]

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.

Do you even have a 3DS?

It's protected by a pin. If you fail that after three times you have to enter in two password responses. If you fail that you have to actually call customer service to get it reset to verify your age.

This isn't "Nintendo failing". This is a very robust parental controls system.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Well... with Animal Crossing on the 3DS, you can meet and chat with random people online... many kids used this as a way to exchange friend codes. And believe me, there are a lot of young kids who do this in the game, so much more prevalent for Japanese kids for some reason. And yeah, that allows them to exchange notes and pictures through Swapnote, which is an unmoderated messaging service.

IIRC you can't put numbers on Animal Crossing's chat feature, so you can't exchange friend-codes.

But it's been a while.... I could be mistaken.

 

[NEO0MJ]

IIRC you can't put numbers on Animal Crossing's chat feature, so you can't exchange friend-codes.

But it's been a while.... I could be mistaken.

They can write the numbers as words.