Nintendo kills photo sharing on console

Nintendo game console users will no longer be able to send pictures to each other using the Nintendo 3DS messaging software.

That's because some users, including minors, had been sending each other "offensive material", Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. said.

As of last Friday, Nintendo has suspended part of the services that were available for the Swapnote and Flipnote Studio 3D software, reported Japan's Asahi Shimbun.

Users need to share their codes, allocated to every unit of the 3DS, to register each other as a "friend." But many users were found to have exchanged their codes with strangers on online bulletin boards to team up. Some posts promised to send indecent photos to providers of 3DS codes.

Nintendo said it decided to end the service after learning about the photo-swapping a few months ago, because it could not intercept filesharing between 3DS "friends".

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