Pictochat not as dangerous as reported

While I wouldn't normally comment on baseless speculation, there are a few interesting facts to share about the sensational 6ABC Action "News" story that YOUR CHILDREN MAY BE AT RISK!!! from Nintendo DS Pictochat.

The bountiful internet (namely GameSetWatch), besides sharing satire, lets us know that while 6ABC contacted someone who knew what he was talking about—GamerDad editor-in-chief Dave Long—they didn't actually include anything he said, as he told the truth that Pictochat is not particularly dangerous.

On Monday morning, I received a call from Nydia Han of Channel 6 Action News, asking me about this exact story, the workings of the Nintendo DS, Pictochat and Wi-Fi. I was at first sort of dumbfounded by the idea of a child being contacted by someone through Pictochat because it's not Internet enabled in any way. ...

Unfortunately, the story is written in such a way that nothing I said is made clear at all. The story essentially makes it sound like your kids can be contacted on the DS by anyone at any time and that you should beware of predators with Nintendo DS lurking on every corner and on the Internet. —

Here are two shiny bullet points that hopefully explain the inaccuracy in the report:

• Pictochat does not use the internet. The DS has "wireless communication," but Pictochat can only contact DSes within local range. You have to be less than around 60 feet away to chat over Pictochat.
• You cannot chat with strangers in the Wi-Fi Connection games. While Mario Kart lets you play with strangers, you can't even chat with your friends. Animal Crossing: Wild World has chat, but you can only play at all with people you've added to your friends roster, through actively adding them during local wireless play or exchanging 12-digit code numbers.

Nintendo has absolutely nothing to gain from unsafe wireless play. While children may want the games, parents still have to buy them. The people at Nintendo know better than to endanger children, so they put a lot of work into making the safe "friends code" system found in the Wi-Fi games. The article notes at the end that Pictochat doesn't work more than about 60 feet away, but calls it a Nintendo "claim." After all, they couldn't verify it experimentally or anything—that would take two Nintendo DSes and ten free minutes!!

I find it amusing that the article ends with Theresa Long's responsible supervision, and even Emily already knowing not to chat with strangers. Kudos to both of them for doing the right thing, but minus a few points for not reading the manual and contacting a sensationalizing "news" department about it. While 6ABC spoke with both Dave Long and "Internet security expert" Keith Dunn, I'm not sure why they passed up the man who runs a news site about games and parenting for the guy who sells internet parental control software on Montel Williams.