Nintendo Wii: A Sex Machine
January 9, 2007 - Rant - External Links - Wii
Holy alarmist article, Batman! This one from WFAA-TV's Shelly Slater shows just how out of touch the mainstream media really is.
Game console can be porn gateway
They were two of the hottest Christmas gifts: Nintendo's Wii and Sony's Playstation 3 game consoles.
But these machines aren't just hot among kids; they're also compatible with sexually-oriented Web sites.
Not only can your child access pornography along with WarioWare and Guitar Hero; the porn industry is advertising to target those toys.
For Laurn Schroeder, protecting her first grade girls is a priority. "[They're] innocent, and we want to try and keep them that way," she said."
But because the Wii, the PS3 and other game consoles have Internet access, it's easy for kids to access porn.
"It's very upsetting something this popular-a kid game-can go that direction so quickly," Schroeder said.
Young kids get it. In a blog, one child boasted, "The first thing I thought of when I downloaded the Wii browser was also porn."
What's worse: Some porn sites are advertising they are "Wii Friendly." Their screens have been reconfigured to fit the Wii and the Playstation 3.
"That's why it's so important to read into and do research and background checking before you invest in it," Schroeder said. She studied her daughters' Wii to identify the built-in parental controls.
Other parents, however, complain that Nintendo's scheme is unsatisfactory, and that the Wii browser lacks a "cyber-nanny" or filtering function.
For now, the Schroeder girls will keep playing. But their mom is keeping an eye on an industry that she says tricks and targets kids into learning too much, too fast.
"We need to keep them protected from people who want to invade a fun game like the Wii," Schroeder said.
Wow. So much bullshit I don't even know where to start. "compatible with sexually-oriented Web sites"? Shelley dear, only in the same way that you're "compatible" with heroin. It's the internet. There is pornography on the internet. This doesn't mean that the internet is synonymous with porn, as much as many of us may joke to the contrary. And having used the Wii browser, I can't see how it's "easy for kids to access porn". Unless they explicitly enter the URL of a porn site, which is a tedious process at best, or follow links to an adult website, they're simply not getting there. It hardly qualifies as easy.
I can certainly believe that some porn sites with good web designers would have their sites "reconfigured to fit the Wii and the Playstation 3", which simply means making the site resize well to the Wii's 640x480 resolution. But I'd be shocked if the author found more than one such site that was redesigning specifically to accomodate the lower resolution for the Wii. Perhaps she didn't even find that.
In a blog, one child boasted, "The first thing I thought of when I downloaded the Wii browser was also porn." I call bullshit on this one. I looked up that quote and found it as a comment on Kotaku. Shelly, you have no way of identifying the author of that comment as a child, and based on the language usage, I'd say it was an adult. You also take the comment out of context and elminate obvious tongue-in-cheek humor that had been intended. He wasn't serious.
I also very much doubt that you could produce any evidence to support the claim that "the porn industry is advertising to target those toys", although I suppose if you did, I wouldn't be shocked. I do agree though that it's important for parents to learn how to use the parental controls built into devices like the Wii. And yes, the beta version of the Opera browser currently available on the Wii does not yet have any parental controls. OH NOES!!!11. Come on. If you're that worried, uninstall the browser. If your kid is so sex-crazed that he/she reinstalls it and goes online with the Wii to view porn, take the thing away. Then your kid can go over Johnny's house next door to do the same thing.
In the end, this is just another alarmist piece of crap article. I remember reading the same thing about the PSP about a year ago when they announced its web browser. And anytime a new web-capable device comes out, we'll hear it again. Gasp!! The Internets?? That's where there's boobies!!!11
I'm surprised about two things in regards to this. One is that there's no comparatively alarming article about how you can browse the internet on cell phones now, thereby giving kids access to porn. I mean, my phone's screen is huge and is in full color. Team that with the built in web brower and you're in pr0n city. The other is that there was no similarly alarming article about the DS. I can only assume it's because with the DS, you have to pay for the Opera cart.
I had read the sex machine article and all I can say is why are they even talking to a mom that thinks the Wii is a "fun game". She clearly has no clue.