The Nintendo 3DS Swapnote feature has been disabled due to the exchange of offensive material, the company has announced. According to Nintendo, some “consumers, including minors, have been exchange their friend codes on Internet bulletin boards and then using Swapnote to exchange offensive material.” As a result, the company will be investigating ways to prevent this from happening but in the meantime, has entirely disabled the Swapnote feature.
While Nintendo has always been conservative over the years, this course of action might be a little over the top. It’s understandable that Nintendo wants the best interest of its consumers and probably doesn’t want to listen to parents complaining about how their child received offensive materials on their handheld game console; but at the end of the day, there are parental control features available.
What’s worse is that the Swapnote feature is essentially the only way to communicate on the 3DS, so this really works against those that use it in order to stay in touch with friends they’ve met playing 3DS games.
Source: Nintendo
