DS PictoChat opens pedophile doorway

First it was the Wii and its Opera Browser. Now it’s the DS and PictoChat. Fox News 6 “we need Advertising dollars mad quick” Milwaukee is reporting that PictoChat encourages child molesters to contact your children through their DS. This “story” ranks right up there with my local FOX 25 news at 10, which ran a story two weeks ago about Guitar Hero and how kids were hurting themselves by playing it too aggressively.

Reporter Brad Hicks in Milwaukee also rakes Nintendo over the coals for advertising a 65 ft. WiFi range, when in fact it’s closer to 300 feet! (Great line from Kotaku on that one: “As a gamer, I was of course impressed with the signal range.”)

PictoChat has been a grand total of one (1) time on my DS, and this includes the year long period when I had a DS phat as well. The session lasted a minute, and then my friend and I played Mario Kart DS. If it were more like a true IM program, then PictoChat *might* be an avenue for risky behavior — but it’s not. Not even close. Informal poll: Who has been or has heard of someone else being propositioned via PictoChat?