ABC News affiliate WPVI-TV did a riduculously sensational story about the dangers of Nintendo’s wireless Nintendo DS and the game Pictochat. Unfortunately the story was a pack of lies. It’s pathetic in fact. And it’s an example about people discussion technology who do not know how technology works. The article said:
We have an important warning for parents. Today marks the three-month anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo DS Wireless Connection. But Action News has learned this popular gaming system could put kids in harm’s way.
But as Theresa Keel learned, that revolutionary wireless capability also comes with a potentially dangerous problem.. “It could be putting your children at risk.” “They can play somebody they’ve never met.”
Theresa’s 11-year-old daughter, Emily, likes to doodle so she’s using the Nintendo DS Pictochat feature. Pictochat puts you right into a chatroom and lets you send messages wirelessly, and on this day we are in one of Philadelphia’s many Wi-Fi hotspots.
Theresa Keel/Center City: “This screen name pops up and asks her what her name is and how old she is, and she answers.”
Emily Keel/Center City: “And I just felt a little scared and confused.”
This has happened to the Keel’s once before. But this time the screen name is so offensive, we can’t even show it to you.
The problem, Nintendo’s Pictochat does not connect to the internet. Each DS unit can connect to each other if you’re within several feet of each other. To put it simply, if you’re chatting with someone, there’s a good chance you can see that someone.
But the real problem is that WPVI-TV knew exactly that, but ignored it to sell the story. The reporter who did the story interviewed Gamer Dad’s David Long who explained how the story could not be true. But none of his opinions mattered and weren’t used. Why inform when you can scare parents with a made-up story?!
Typical just another example of the moronic media desperately going after tabloid level stories just to grab the users attention and cause some pointless and unnecessary outrage.
The biggest potential risk I would think is that your kids will sit around and get fat because they don’t go outside and get any real exercise.
Both my sons (14, 17) Use DS with a wireless connection. They are capable of communicating with each other wirelessly without using the internet. Their game of choice for this is Animal Crossing.
However, the article says, “Today marks the three-month anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo DS Wireless Connection.” That is the anniversary of the DS being able to connect to the internet with a special connector and through certain new games. I think that is what the article is referring to John. However, I agree with you that the story is “riduculously sensational “, mainly because of this comment… “It could be putting your children at risk.” “They can play somebody they’ve never met.”
I suppose that comment comes from someone who doesn’t have children, or they don’t allow their kids to start school in the fall. I rhink a worse scenario is that a child is unable to make new friends. At least on the internet, there is no judgement on how you dress or look, and you can hone your conversational skills for use in the community in which you live. These are positive aspects that sensationalists seem blind to.
We bought a Nintendo wireless connector and now my kids are able to talk to anyone in the world (who speaks english), within the setting of the game. They have made some friends in Texas, California, and France. in the game they trade, visit each other’s virtual homes, solve puzzles, get jobs and help each other in their virtual lives. They have moved to online chatting with some of these friends and discuss teen life and share experiences and interests. These distant friends in no way inhibit relationships with their local friends, or pose any kind of threat.
The danger arrises from a childs relationship with their parents. Unfortunately many mothers and fathers don’t understand how to be parents, or how to develop a healthy, loving family relationship of total unconditional trust.
That’s a whole other subject though.
Yeah, having a healthy, loving family relationship of total unconditional trust is great….that is until the kid messes this up.
Let’s face it, kids are kids. They do stupid things. While we as adults may think of cause and effect and logical consequences of our actions…a 12 or 13 year old doesn’t think in those terms. I know my 12 year old doesn’t. There are no easy answers. There are no “hey, if you are a good enough parent and sit down and really listen to your child, everything will work out”. Sorry…thanks for playing. Doesn’t always work like that. Children as they grow also become adept at telling you what you want to hear.
What does this have to do with meeting people online. I don’t believe there are pedophiles around ever corner on the net…but we do limit our son to using the internet while we’re in the same room. He mainly just fools around making Sonic based comics with Photoshop. But he also posts to different forums. We try to monitor that as best we can.
I mean, really…total unconditional trust? You really want to stick with that? When you say that, to me that means you would have no problems putting an internet connected computer up in your 12 year olds bedroom. I mean, that’s total trust right?
Damn, thats my local ABC station. They like to sensationalize everything so this comes as no real surprise to me.
My children are 24 and 25 They are both educated productive members of sociaty. One of the things they tell me that made me a great father was my total unconditional trust. They were the first generation of internet kids.they lived on IRC. but we were in the room with them. Believe me kids are not by nature evil, with a little perental attention they will be OK.
Scott,
what I said was a “loving family relationship of total unconditional trust. “That does not mean they should trust anyoue outside the family unless of course that person has EARNED their trust. You can still be friendly to someone without trusting them completely. But in a family situation if unconditional trust is nurtured from year one, there will be no problems. My life is transparent to my children, as theirs is to mine. They know right from wrong, how not to follow a fool even if a friend turns out to be a fool, and what it means to be street savvy. My 12 year old daughter is the same way. My sons have 3 computers in thier room on the family LAN.
Worked for me.
Funny…sorta like PC Magazine writer lies about facts slam Apple and to get hits on his magazine’s web site and scare Mac users…
Touché
Man, where was a room connected to broadband when I was 12? I had to settle for artificial images of strip poker with pixels the size of my fist that i pulled off a BBS with a 1200 baud modem….My how times have changed.
A local news producer acquaintance of mine places the blame of inaccurate or sensationalised stories on poor newroom management- many local stations fill as many as four hours of local news time daily. Facts are often not verified at even the lowest level just to fill airtime. What kills me is when an inaccuracy is presented in a morning piece, it almost universally goes unchecked and repeated in the evening cast.
Good night and good luck.
Corrections:
1) Pictochat is as much of a game as AIM or IRC. It is just a tool to chat with people using pictures.
2) The DS can connect up to 90 feet with no interference. There is no need to make the product look bad just so your story seems more interesting.
Scott
Good post, I’m with you.
The one thing we insisted on was that all our computers went into the same room. No personal computers in private areas of the house. Each computer is in it’s own corner. The only way to see what is on someone’s monitor is to turn around, but you never know when someone is going to turn around.
We talk often with our daughter. When she talks to us we trust her to be honest. We also teach her to be honest and trust others. Unconditional trust? No. But we trust her to do right and for six yrs old she does us proud.
But none of his opinions mattered and weren’t used. Why inform when you can scare parents with a made-up story?!
Because they discounted David Long’s explanation and went with a self professed “expert”.
Keith Dunn/Internet Safety Expert: “Predators are using Nintendo DS anywhere in the world.
…
Or if they’re in a wireless environment, say a coffee shop or whatever, they jump on the wireless network so now you have predators who are trying to get at our kids.”
This guy appears to be an expert at telling people the sky is falling, for a fee of course. He is not an expert at Nintendo or the internet.
While maybe the station relied on a poor expert, they should have investigated when David Long and Nintendo said the other person needed to be very close. If you read between the lines, Nintendo told the reporter that the game is not internet capable.
Woah… but thats what the news does… it lies.
Do Skittles cause VD? Find out at 11.
This is crazy, but not that crazy. The basic idea of the DS being used for “fishing” is valid for sure, and I have no doubt whatsoever that Nintendo is struggling with it internally and its been the reason they were the last console maker to get online.
The first WFC game was Mario Kart DS. It offered zero ability to communicate with the randomly server assigned players other than a very small custom icon one can make. Nintendo easily could have added a very useful chat feature, or a friends list but they chose not too. It made the game really annoying, but the fear of the game being used as a tool for pedophiles is, I have no doubt, the reasoning behind it.
Tony Hawk works with WFC, but I haven’t played it yet.
The next WFC game was Animal Crossing. It allows a rudimentary chat feature, and message board system but you can’t randomly meet with anyone. You have to exchange Friend Codes some other way (in person, AIM, etc) before you can even play with anyone online. You can’t actually meet anyone in AC unless you travel to someone’s town, and someone you don’t know (but the town’s owner does) also travels to that town at the same time. Even then though you can’t just click a button to add them to your friend code list. They would have to type it out, you’d have to write it down, then go back to your town and enter the number manually, etc. This not only prevents “fishing”, but also prevents some random asshole from coming to your town, cutting down the trees, pulling the stumps, and re-planting the mysterious “corrupted tulip” everywhere via an item dup glitch. This is the Animal Crossing version of salting the Earth, btw.
The next big game for WFC will be Metroid which will have death matches like Quake, or whatever, and voice chat. This is the next test.
Its sad, but Nintendo has to be really *really* careful about this. As soon as some kid does disappear because some disgusting jerk picks him/her up in a DS game Nintendo will have the biggest PR problem in its company’s history. Its virtually guaranteed to happen eventually, IMO.
Sure same thing can happen with AIM, but facts are only one of many aspect of the news, PR, stock prices, etc.
I sent them a complaint. Not sure if it will do much in the way of a retraction, but maybe if everyone does it, the flood will at least make them think twice before trying something again. Maybe I’m being too optimistic.
To file your own complaint, click here
John W
Ouch, that hurts !!! It might be true, but the thought processes of a whining bunch of aging malcontents still hurts.
You’re surprised the media makes up stories or exaggerates things to get ratings even when people are telling them they’re wrong? Remember Dateline’s exploding trucks? Food Lion? Mary Mapes’ NationaL Guard memos?