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NCL suspends image sharing in Swap Note and Flipnote [Spot pass Notes disabled]

Sometimes life sucks.

Sometimes life is unfair.

Sometimes companies have to cover their arses because minors were getting sent dick pics.
 
Oh, they have learned. They're very sensitive to legal issues after being sued over someone seizing out while playing a Nintendo console while supposedly not knowing it could happen, even though they were the only ones that put seizure warnings in their game manuals since the NES.

It's why the Wii, DS, and later GameCube games had the seizure warning you had to hit a button to get past on them.

So they learned to cover their own asses and take the "family friendly" route over mainteining basic functions of a electronic gadget?

You mean over phone networks that are granted Common Carrier status and are legally immune from content or messages sent over their network?

What about my Vita?
 

Joqu

Member
Pokemon let's you register randoms you have played against as friends so I'm going to blame Pokemon for this.

Dammit Pokemon.
 

FyreWulff

Member
So they learned to cover their own asses and take the "family friendly" route over mainteining basic functions of a electronic gadget?

Or the cost:benefit of reworking Swapnote to use a moderation queue or ban function is pointless with Miiverse, which has moderation and oversight built into it's infrastructure, around the corner.

What about my Vita?

Both Microsoft and Sony will ban you for vulgar or lewd content sent on their network - you can report messages on Xbox Live right from the message, not sure about PSN. Microsoft also updated some games like Uno to make use of the Live Vision Cam very restricted years after the game came out because it was internally referred to as the "pedocam" according to one developer.
 
Okay, that comment was obviously a joke, but you are treading deeply into false equivalence territory here. Cool off.

Why? Because I dislike that one of the companies leaders of the industry doesn't get basic functions?

What does this have to say about a unificated account system?

Go send porn to a minor on your Vita's messaging system and see what happens.

On second thought, don't.

WHAT!?
 

Why do you think they removed the priveldge on Swap Note in the first place?

It's likely some sort of sexually explicit material was sent - either that or explicit violence, but I'll go out on a limb and say explicit sexual content is more likely. Nintendo received complaints from parents (who don't know how to use parental controls and/or control their children's information sharing online, yes) and shut down the service to avoid major controversy right before the holiday period, knowing Miiverse would pick up most of the functionality soon enough anyway.

And, as mad as I know some of you are, for Nintendo as a business with a relatively family friendly image, of the 'a few power users of Swap Note get mad' or 'national news about us doing nothing about sex pics being sent to minors on our service' options, the former is far, far less damaging long-term.
 
I still think it's the job of parents monitoring what their children do online, not Nintendo's. The 3DS has parental settings and Swapnote had block filters as well. It really sucks since Swapnote was fun :/ and the whole thing started from "bulletin boards" anyway.

I guess it makes sense if Miiverse is coming but still. I'm kinda angry.
 

Yasumi

Banned
Farewell, Nikki. May we meet again on the battlefield.
BZWGWAZ.jpg
 
And what does this:



has to do with me?

The reason for this gimp is likely sexually explicit material.

You compared it to picture messages on phones, where phone companies are generally immune to message content, and then on the Vita, which may or may not be immune (I honestly don't know). Mine was a rather flippant way of telling you to try what likely happened in this scenario with Swap Note on the Vita and see if they have the same reaction to Nintendo or do something else.

You seem to believe Nintendo was completely irrational in their decision here, but your reaction to doing what was suggested says you at least see that there may have been cause for action against it.
 
:( Really enjoyed your little girl's pictures, and the pics of your lego collection.

Thanks Katt. I took a picture of her today in her Halloween costume to Swap and I got caught up in New Leaf Trick or Treat and now it's too late... ;_;

Miiverse just isn't the same thing either... :(
 
The reason for this gimp is likely sexually explicit material.

You compared it to picture messages on phones, where phone companies are generally immune to message content, and then on the Vita, which may or may not be immune (I honestly don't know). Mine was a rather flippant way of telling you to try what likely happened in this scenario with Swap Note on the Vita and see if they have the same reaction to Nintendo or do something else.

You seem to believe Nintendo was completely irrational in their decision here, but your reaction to doing what was suggested says you at least see that there may have been cause for action against it.

Again, dude, Why the hell I would try to do that?
 
Don't stupid immature kids have better ways of sending inappropriate things

Using swapnote just seems like an incredibly roundabout way of going at it.
 

Lost Fragment

Obsessed with 4chan
The comparisons to Steam, etc, don't really work since the family friendly image is pretty core to Nintendo's business. I could easily see scaremongering news stories popping up about kids sending inappropriate pics to strangers using their 3DS, which, by the way, is pretty heavily marketed towards children, and Nintendo really, really doesn't need that.

The solution here is pretty inelegant, but if they truly can't curb this, or at least can't curb this soon or easily, then it's hard to blame them for doing what they did to stop any further abuse. I can't imagine that they won't replace it with something down the line that has better safeguards against this sort of misuse.

If Nintendo is guilty of anything, it's releasing these kinds of photo sharing capabilities and not understanding how some people might misuse it until it slaps them in the face, but it's fucking Nintendo so nobody should really be surprised that they're naive to the ways that people use the internet.
 

Zee-Row

Banned
Nintendo should stop being a family company and become an entertainment company. The market that they think they have has left them for Smartphones. Focus on the hardcore Nintendo fans instead.
 
Don't stupid immature kids have better ways of sending inappropriate things

Using swapnote just seems like an incredibly roundabout way of going at it.
It's actually a pretty smart way of doing it. Parents will check phones, but they aren't going to check a gaming console app they don't know anything about. It's not tied to an account, you're never going to get banned from it, it's unlikely to be looked through by friends or authority figures.

I mean, if you're going to send illegal pictures of your genitals to old men, it's either this or Snapchat and everyone knows about snapchat.
 
Sometimes life sucks.

Sometimes life is unfair.

Sometimes companies have to cover their arses because minors were getting sent dick pics.
It's less that they're covering their asses* and more how they're going about it. Much like that Melee tourney thing I remember you similarly getting passive-aggressively upset people were having a go at Nintendo's initial reaction.

*Like I dunno, I guess while in this day and age I think a parent should be more aware of features like parental locks or their kids talking to strangers online, I imagine there's some parents out there that want/need harsher reactions like Nintendo's here since they're not entirely aware of how technology works.
 
Again, dude, Why the hell I would try to do that?

Jesus christ, what are you not getting here?

You suggested that Nintendo was wrong to shut down the service because people were using it to send porn to kids. He was suggesting that Sony would probably shut down a similar service on Vita if people were using it to send porn to kids. Not rocket science.
 

thesaucetastic

Unconfirmed Member
If it's so sudden, it was probably something big, like a child porn distro ring or something that can get them in hot water internationally.
 

Zabant

Member
Fucking Great...FANTASTIC.. now i'm going to have to go back to the risky method of whipping it out in front of the kids in public.

Thanks nintendo
 

Darryl

Banned
If it's so sudden, it was probably something big, like a child porn distro ring or something that can get them in hot water internationally.

We can't really tell if it is sudden or not unless we know where the trouble was stemming from and when that happened. I doubt personally that it was anything large. It was probably just tweens sexting. These features on Nintendo devices were ticking time bombs from the start.
 

eojoko

Member
"Nintendo always wants to provide a positive experience for all consumers and limit the risk of any inappropriate activity or misuse of a service."

This is impossible to do without limiting a person's ability to communicate with strangers. They tried to limit this by using friend codes, which are inconvenient. But obviously children are just adding random stranger's friend codes from the internet because it's convenient. They need to come up with a solution to the friend code system. The friend code system is the reason some kid got a picture of some stranger's dick and showed it to his Mom. Of course that can't happen on a Nintendo system.

Maybe a solution could be a way to track and report sent messages. Someone sends their dick out to a friend's list full of strangers? Should be sexual assault or indecent exposure or whatever that charge might be.
 

Toad.T

Banned
What Nintendo sadly doesn't realize is that being "Family-Friendly" is impossible in 2013.

You could buy your kids Dr. Seuss books up the wazoo, set child block so that it only shows PBS kids/Disney JR, never let your child go on the internet at all, shield them from the newspaper, the works. You can't stop some kid at school from showing them naughty stuff on their smartphones, or forbid them from listening to their playgroup teacher's relationship phone calls. Does that mean you have to invoke helicopter parenting, or home schooling? By all means no. Unless you want to hide our big beautiful world and the good people that inhabit it from your child.

What society accepts as family friendly stuff during whatever year will always be different from what was accepted before. Simpsons now has massive amounts of products for the young'uns', where as during it's infancy, it was considered inappropriate for minors. Batman's massively popular, but before that it spawned a massive thesis on how it was horrible for developing minds. (It was called "Seduction of the innocent", I believe.) Literary classics regarded as all-ages now, such as Tom Sawyer, were despised by protective types back during their first publication dates.

So Nintendo, here's the thing. Like the parent listed above, you try to protect the innocent. You can act like certain series that don't fit this quota (F-Zero, Mother, Metroid, Text-adventures) don't exist. You don't let them voice chat with strangers. You don't tell them everything when they ask you things, as you have skeletons within your closet (Hiding the transgendered Mario characters, Refusing to say the G-word even when whole games plots (Diamond/Pearl) revolve around it). But you can't stop children from going on avenues you don't own and being naïve with their information. You can put up barriers, such as the moderation on Miiverse, but you can't fully control the path of those you're trying to protect. No parent fully can either. Does that mean you shouldn't allow anything ever? No way. Instead, if you really want to continue on the daunting task of being family friendly, you have to admit that not only are there scumbags out there, but there's also good people out there as well. More so then the scumbags. These good people look out for their friends and family, with or without your interference. Until that idea has been realized, you'll never be able to truly make things that are family friendly; as the family of 2013 consists of more than just the child and their parents.

tl;dr: Times change and you can't protect everyone every time, but Nintendo should've anticipated system abuse/scumbags before creating a "Friend" messaging service and have instigated moderation on photos; if they want to still be family-friendly. Or as some have said, an account system, so that the bad apples can be removed without leveling the whole orchard.

Hopefully this makes sense. I was struggling to conclude my thought due to how late it is where I am, so if it sounds disjointed near the end, I apologize in advance.
 
D

Deleted member 125677

Unconfirmed Member
So dumb
no more dicks and balls drawings for you, Morfeo. :(

This better be replaced with miiverse soon! That thing is moderated like North Korean newspapers, so nothing to worry about, freaked out parents of murrica!
 

akira28

Member
So my only guess is some parent found some penis drawings on their kid's 3DS and threatened to go to Gawker unless something was done.
 

MarkusRJR

Member
So dumb. I thought it was an Onion article at first. If this were any other company people would be having meltdowns. I mean seriously:

-> Creates text message and doodle messaging app for added 3DS friends. Parental controls on 3DS can probably stop kids from doing this (I'd imagine).

-> Turns off only messaging system on console due to inevitable drawings of penises and boobs being sent to friends.

-> Console now left with no means of communicating with friends to coordinate any semblance of online multiplayer.

They better get a messaging app in place soon or I am going to be fucking pissed. If they just make the 3DS Miiverse app be a website to browse with the web browser I am going to be so annoyed. The 3DS browser is such utter shit it would be so frustrating. So stupid that they're removing basic features due to something small and inevitable like this. Reminds me how removed Nintendo is from how normal people use the internet.
 

Pikma

Banned
News like these are quite telling about how fast Nintendo is at reacting to certain situations when they feel like it. Imagine if they were as proactive when dealing with region locking or proper account systems.
 
If they don't fix it, at least I hope that they make Nikki the MiiVerse mascot then. She's too cool to lose because of something so silly.
 

wrowa

Member
When are they going to shutdown the Wii U's video chat? When are they going to make adding friends even more tedious?

Using "some kids accidentally added people online" as the reasoning for the shutdown makes me feel really uncomfortable. Nintendo's friend system already is a pain and now it's apparently not safe enough for them. Will Nintendo falll behind the curve even more?
 
What the...

This is so stupid. There's parental control in place, let the parents do their jobs. How will you prevent minors from using the browser to search for porn? Disable it as well?
 

neto

Member
it really sucks, I hope this speeds up miiverse on 3ds, also I just missed 1 stationery, never drew too much but loved watching what everyone else sent
 
We need a text chat app for 3DS and Wii U...

3DS is in the worse position. Without Swap Note, there's no way of communicating with my friendlist.

All this because some idiot thought it was smart to send pics of his penis. Please.

Now we need Miiverse on 3DS asap.
 
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