If you're a parent and you have a child under 18, it's important to always monitor their activities on the internet. With pedophiles all over the Internet looking for young children to talk to, you should always check your child's internet history. There are a large amount of children being fans of Nintendo's new Wii U video game console. You wouldn't expect your kids to meet pedophiles of any kind while playing a Mario game, right? Guess again. NAMBLA recently held a meeting in early February to discuss a few ways this could actually happen.
When the Wii U launched in November, they also launched Miiverse. Miiverse is a social community for gamers of all ages to talk to one another. If you are unfamiliar with the system, you first need to make a Mii. A Mii is a character you create that represents yourself. After you make your Mii, you choose an online username and after that, you're free to post in any community as long as it's appropriate. There seems to be no issue here besides the fact that anybody of any age can message you and invite you to a video chat session.
In February, NAMBLA and other pro-pedophilia groups held a meeting, as mentioned above, to discuss how using video game consoles could promote their views. At the meeting, many members expressed their love for Nintendo and praised the ability to come in contact with children through Miiverse. For example, you could enter any Miiverse community and put up a post looking for someone under 18. After becoming friends, predators could use Wii U Chat, Wii U's video chat service, to talk to the victim. Since there are no profile pictures for Miiverse profiles, it isn't possible to know if the individual is actually who they say they are.
Nintendo is believed to be taking action against any type of behavior like this. For example, when you use Miiverse, adding friends and video chatting is disabled until you set it up. With parental controls on the Wii U console, the parent can easily disable video chatting and all friend requests which will disable the set-up process. Many parents, however, fail to be as technologically advanced as their children, so it's important for all parents to read the manual that the system comes with before letting their children go online with the Wii U. Also, when inappropriate or sexual posts are found in any Miiverse community, the user is banned for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, if the user makes another inappropriate post, the user will eventually receive a permanent ban.
Nintendo's Wii U console is a lot of fun and creates a whole new experience for video games as a whole. If you have a child under 18, remember to set up parental controls on the system before they use it. If you forgot to set up parental controls, ask your child if you can check their Miiverse messages. If you find anything inappropriate or sexual with someone who you believe is 18 or over, report the message to Nintendo and to the appropriate Authorities. If you are an individual under 18, make sure to avoid anybody who asks to video chat immediately after becoming friends.
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