Secret paedophile armies prepare PictoChat onslaught
Horrific report from the US.
Watch out, parents, because paedophiles are back - and this time they're coming through Nintendo DS. Those crazy paedophiles!
Don't believe us? As FOX 6 Milwaukee's Brad Hicks explains, paedophiles are now in a position to use PictoChat to find your children, and thanks to the invention of wireless networking, nothing can stop them! Not even walls! Or physics!
You're not even safe on the move. Because if a paedophile is driving along next to you, he can still get at your children by joining their PictoChat session. "Nintendo is well aware of the risk," says Brad.
"Both the owner's manual and the company website warn parents about PictoChat, and recommend talking to your kids about what to do if they get a message from someone they don't know."
But as one of the parents in Brad's report points out, if it's not on the TV advert, why would it be included in the product itself? And why would parents read owner's manuals?
Nintendo DS is incredibly popular at this point. Why? Kids are naive. "It has lots of graphics," one tells Brad. The truth is clearly more sinister. We decided to hound Nintendo UK for a response to Brad's explosive discoveries.
Their four and a half minutes of email silence was damning.
They later answered. "Nintendo takes the issue of children receiving messages from strangers very seriously," they noted. Which clearly makes one of us.
"Children should be warned about receiving messages from, or communicating with, strangers through any medium. For this reason a warning and detailed privacy information are clearly highlighted in the Nintendo DS instruction booklet.
"Nintendo also recommends that an adult should assist children with the system set up and instruct them not to use personal information and not to meet strangers or give personal information to anyone as it could be read by a stranger.
"It should be noted that PictoChat does not connect to the internet. PictoChat can only be used to communicate with another Nintendo DS within the range of the Nintendo DS's wireless signal, which is approximately 65ft."
65 feet, eh? That's not what Brad says.