Nintendo Stops Swapnote Service on 3DS due to Offensive Messages

By Jorge Ba-oh 01.11.2013 9

Nintendo Stops Swapnote Service on 3DS due to Offensive Messages on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Nintendo has disabled the Swapnote service around the globe due to an influx of inappropriate messages.

The service, which allows Nintendo 3DS/2DS players to exchange drawings, text and photos, does require a friend code to work however Nintendo isn't happy with some of the content being shared.

Nintendo has learned that some consumers, including minors, have been exchanging their friend codes on Internet bulletin boards and then using Swapnote (known as Nintendo Letter Box in other regions) to exchange offensive material.

Nintendo has been investigating ways of preventing this and determined it is best to stop the SpotPass feature of Swapnote because it allows direct exchange of photos and was actively misused.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience to the many consumers who have been using this service responsibly; however this decision was made considering the point that many minors also use this feature of Swapnote. Thank you for your understanding.


 

The service went down on October 31st at 7pm PT.

Do you think Nintendo should have stopped SwapNote - do you use the app?

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Comments

L is offline. L 01.11.2013#1

This is so dumb, seriously. Why don't they just implement parental controls on the app?

 
mudskip is offline. mudskip 01.11.2013#2

I only ever got messages from Nikki anyway...

 
Sonic_13 is offline. Sonic_13 01.11.2013#3

The way this is worded makes it sounds serious - illegal serious.


L said:
This is so dumb, seriously. Why don't they just implement parental controls on the app?

Why do you think they won't? That probably what they are going to , but they'll adjust the app to implement them.

 
WP-Final is offline. WP-Final 01.11.2013#4

Give us Miiverse 3DS and all will be forgiven Smilie

 
unknown (guest) 01.11.2013#5

i can respect their decision, swapnote wasnt meant for over g audiences.

Marzeee is offline. Marzeee 01.11.2013#6

I'm really sad about this, I loved Letterbox so much. Miiverse will be a nice alternative, but it won't offer the same personality you could add to Letterbox posts.

I really wish they could have just took out the option to send photographs.

 
Dcj91x is offline. Dcj91x 04.11.2013#7

I disagree with their decision in every way. Nintendo canceled the service because minors were sending and receiving inappropriate content. This only happened because parents were to irresponsible to use parental controls correctly or at all. Nintendo chose to punish everyone instead of educate parents or increase parental controls. They decided to take extreme measures instead of making more appropriate decisions. 

 
J4K is offline. J4K 04.11.2013#8

Stuff like this is why it's hard to take any of Nintendo's online efforts seriously.

 
WP-Final is offline. WP-Final 04.11.2013#9

It's an odd situation. Nintendo have been fantastic with their recent online efforts such as the 3DS/WiiU eShop and Miiverse. I think Swapnote unfortunately wasn't planned out too well. 

All they need to do to fix this is add accounts to 3DS systems, take out the option to add self taken pictures to notes and they'll then be able to moderate it better.

 

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