Nintendo Swapnote shutdown world-wide

[ShadowSoldier]

Little heads up, the situation was a lot worse:

- two men have been arrested
- they were alledgedly performing "improper acts" in hotel rooms with a 12 year-old girl
- this happened multiple times
- the men are aged 49 and 36
- this was facilitated through the 3DS
- child pornography charges have also been filed against another man, 44
- he allegedly had an 11 and 12 year old girls send him nude pictures through Swapnote
- other men have been charged with statutory rape and indecency through compulsion

http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=216348

When will the parents learn it's their damn responsibility to look after their kids.

Yeah, it is their responsibility, but guess what. That isn't the world we live in anymore. Majority of parents will find anyway to put the blame on someone else.

*Buys 9 year old son GTAV*
*Sees son banging a hooker*
"WTF IS ROCKSTAR THINKING! KIDS PLAY THIS GAME!"

 

[ßleck]

That's pretty messed up. If Nintendo used an account system they could just block people like this. Now, because of this one incident, they just shutdown the whole thing completely. It's a shame we have to suffer because of all this.

 

[drfsupercenter]

According to the article, they were wrong about the last bit, the other men may not have used Swapnote.

As sick as that is, there's still no reason they should have shut down the entire service over it. You can only send messages to someone if you have their friend code, it's as simple as just removing somebody if you don't like they're sending you. Let's just shut down the entire Internet while we're at it, since predators use that as well

 

[Sheimi]

Let's just shut down the entire Internet while we're at it, since predators use that as well

Shh...don't give them idea's.

Read the Kotaku article. I can now see why they did shut it down. When I saw the article headline, I wasn't expecting it to be people from Japan.

 

[the_randomizer]

This is why we can't have nice things, thanks to jackasses like those predators.

 

[drfsupercenter]

According to my friend, you can still send Swapnote notes over StreetPass, since they only shut down the "SpotPass" servers. And I don't think they can really block streetpass, unless they released a firmware update that deleted the channel.

I wonder if it's possible to make a relay for StreetPass signals using something like Hamachi so we can still send each other the stationeries

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Well...I only used Swapnote to collect all the stationery anyway. But still, this is why we can't have nice things.

 

[Setsaya]

Disappointing, never got to use the app on my 3ds. This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[Kazekai]

That's pretty messed up. If Nintendo used an account system they could just block people like this. Now, because of this one incident, they just shutdown the whole thing completely. It's a shame we have to suffer because of all this.

If they used an account system, we wouldn't have a lot of really stupid problems.

Also, when I clicked on that article I expected this to have taken place in a metropolitan American area. I guess pedophilia isn't just a white man's perversion.

 

[NostalgicMillennial]

fucking Nintendo took their ball and went home..hope this gets integrated with MiiVerse

Little heads up, the situation was a lot worse:



http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=216348



Yeah, it is their responsibility, but guess what. That isn't the world we live in anymore. Majority of parents will find anyway to put the blame on someone else.

*Buys 9 year old son GTAV*
*Sees son banging a hooker*
"WTF IS ROCKSTAR THINKING! KIDS PLAY THIS GAME!"

I know..I hear little shits that sound like they are about 8 on GTA V online....the majority of the parents that we live in "the world today" should just turn in their parenting license and not have kids because they ain't fuckin' doin' it right.
And on the same topic get an eye exam...it says "M" for 17+ MATURE on the box for a REASON. Your CHILD is NOT 17+ years old so it would not be wise to present MATURE material to a NON-MATURE CHILD. Fucking idiots...that's like COD WaW online's gore being censored in future titles because of this "kids" (that are NOT Mature) that play it.

 

[Deleted_171835]

Japanese newspaper Mainichi reports that charges for child pornography have also been filed against another man, aged 44, who had allegedly two girls—then aged 11 to 12—send nude photos through SwapNote. This man, a resident of Aichi Prefecture, has allegedly confessed to the acts.

SwapNote was a free Nintendo-made app that let users create and share hand-written notes and drawings over the internet. The service's online support ended on October 31 due to being "actively misused" to transmit "offensive material".

According to news site Yomiuri Online, two other men have been arrested for allegedly performing "improper acts" in hotel rooms with a 12 year-old girl on multiple occasions earlier this year. The girl met both men—one is a 49 year-old Yokohama resident and the other is a 36 year-old Chiba resident—through the 3DS's Swapnote application.

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

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

 

[MTSoph14]

This was reported a few days ago.

 

[Blaze163]

What I don't get is that in order to use SwapNote you need a wifi connection. So why not just use said wifi to go on websites where you can find this stuff? There must be one somewhere, it is the internet after all, there's something for every sick twisted fuck around here somewhere. Just sayin', seems illogical to me.

Not that I in any way endorse any such activities and I'm glad the scum is going to jail and I hope he gets thrown between all the big bruisers in jail til his arsehoole looks like a yawning hippo's mouth.

 

[pokefloote]

This was reported a few days ago.

Well, not the actual reason why it was shut down, just the fact that it was being used inappropriately.

What I don't get is that in order to use SwapNote you need a wifi connection. So why not just use said wifi to go on websites where you can find this stuff? There must be one somewhere, it is the internet after all, there's something for every sick twisted fuck around here somewhere. Just sayin', seems illogical to me.

Not that I in any way endorse any such activities and I'm glad the scum is going to jail and I hope he gets thrown between all the big bruisers in jail til his arsehoole looks like a yawning hippo's mouth.

Spoiler

I agree!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Well, that explains a lot. I thought they were overreacting a bit by shutting it down just because some people sent inappropriate material in private.
This however is a lot more serious.

 

[Foxi4]

Well, that explains a lot. I thought they were overreacting a bit by shutting it down just because some people sent inappropriate material in private.
This however is a lot more serious.

No, it isn't.

This applies to every online service in the history of ever, from basic chatrooms to advanced structures like Facebook, this is the Internet and parents have to be aware of this. Nintendo had *one* job - explain to the users how Parental Controls work and how to allow their kids to only contact those people who are a part of the Friends List which should be approved by the parents. All this amounts to is shifting the blame from the parents who use the 3DS as a babysitter with no supervision at all to the company which hasn't done anything wrong. Now, instead of finding a solution to the problem, they choose to shut the whole service down because that's infinitely easier than introducing new security/monitoring/reporting protocols.

 

[Blaze163]

No, it isn't.

This applies to every online service in the history of ever, from basic chatrooms to advanced structures like Facebook, this is the Internet and parents have to be aware of this. Nintendo had *one* job - explain to the users how Parental Controls work and how to allow their kids to only contact those people who are a part of the Friends List which should be approved by the parents. All this amounts to is shifting the blame from the parents who use the 3DS as a babysitter with no supervision at all to the company which hasn't done anything wrong.

It doesn't in any way excuse the actions of the scumbag in question, but I do agree that parents need to take a much more active role in their child's development instead of just sticking them in front of a box and just hoping it all pans out ok. Freya's only a week and a half old at this point so she's completely transfixed by her own reflection, but trust me, when she gets old enough to be involved with stuff like this, I'll make damn sure she knows the dangers.

 

[BlackWizzard17]

No, it isn't.

This applies to every online service in the history of ever, from basic chatrooms to advanced structures like Facebook, this is the Internet and parents have to be aware of this. Nintendo had *one* job - explain to the users how Parental Controls work and how to allow their kids to only contact those people who are a part of the Friends List which should be approved by the parents. All this amounts to is shifting the blame from the parents who use the 3DS as a babysitter with no supervision at all to the company which hasn't done anything wrong. Now, instead of finding a solution to the problem, they choose to shut the whole service down because that's infinitely easier than introducing new security/monitoring/reporting protocols.

It is a lot more serious than little kids cursing at each other or writing inappropriate things but then again there are plenty of situations like this on all sorts of devices.\, but Nintendo could have found another way to go about the situation.
I mean common sense that you give out a service that allows you to DRAW and use PICTURES when sending it to some one else and expect certain behaviors not to happen , its not like Nintendo didn't see this type of stuff coming.

 

[Dork]

Now, instead of finding a solution to the problem, they choose to shut the whole service down because that's infinitely easier than introducing new security/monitoring/reporting protocols.

Except Miiverse is going to completely replace Swapnote anyway, why bother keeping support for an inferior messaging system.

 

[Foxi4]

Except Miiverse is going to completely replace Swapnote anyway, why bother keeping support for an inferior messaging system.

"Is going to" being the keywords here. It hasn't been introduced yet, so we can't speak of any replacing taking place - a feature is taken away with nothing in exchange for it.

It is a lot more serious than little kids cursing at each other or writing inappropriate things but then again there are plenty of situations like this on all sorts of devices. but Nintendo could have found another way to go about the situation.

I mean common sense that you give out a service that allows you to DRAW and use PICTURES when sending it to some one else and expect certain behaviors not to happen , its not like Nintendo didn't see this type of stuff coming.

This is exactly where the parenting factor kicks in. If you don't give two flips about what your child is doing Online then your child may get in trouble - it's as simple as that. Don't blame Nintendo for the parent's ineptitude - on the same basis you could ban E-mail.