Security for kids? On a Wii?
You'd have thought Nintendo would have
really considered this with the Wii wouldn't you?
To all intents and purposes, it's doing a great job with it's new console....but is there a basic flaw in it's design?
We live in a world of GaryGlitter's and IanHuntley's. This is very sad to see, but unfortunately seems to be getting worse every day.
The only way to really combat the situation is to batten down the hatches and reinforce the windows...especially when it comes to online communications.
One look at some of the usernames of some of my nephews and nieces online friends is enough to make me raise an eyebrow or too (and these are bona fida school friends I've met and that they see every day). It seems there is very little that can be done to ensure anonymity combined with security when vetting online contacts.
The most obvious way is to ensure the main PC is down in the living room so that you can keep an eye on what the little blighters get up to.
Then of course, there are parental controls that limit what can be accessed (and even when).
But this is all kind of taken for granted because usernames alone seem....well...kind of
impersonal don't they? The general consensus is "my username isn't my name.....so I'm still anonymous".....right?......weeeellllll.....
Let's take this onto the Wii. Or rather gaming in general. I remember when I experienced my first online game. It was playing X-Wing on the PC.
I loaded it up and realised I could play with other people via some funny thing called the "internalate" (well, not quite, but you get my gist
). So I configure the settings to run on my measly 56kbps landline and join a funky sounding thing called a Game Room. Up till this point in my life, Game Room implied a dart board, pool table and table football (still does
), so I was very excited about all of it
.
On I go and.........................proceed to get the crap beaten out of me by folks across the pond on cable connections with very little lag on their side :(.
It may have taught me the humbleness of that so hallowed of desserts, the humble pie, but it also introduced me to online chat. There I could sit, happily chatting away ("how do you doooooooo? Fancy a cup of tea?") whilst my cockpit filled with smoke and "red-5" decided to rejoin the shipyard in the sky.
Luckily for me, everything was safe and OK, but this wasn't the case with everyone in the world at the time. Pandora's box had already been opened elsewhere and soon you couldn't open the paper without at least one story of some poor kid in Oklahoma being groomed by nasty old men in Thailand.
Thankfully, there has been a general industry acceptance and parental acceptance of tighter controls being needed across the board and, if you're modestly sensible, most online experience for kids is safe.
.....but this doesn't mean it still isn't a worry.
As mentioned, a big aspect is that everything can be VERY anonymous. How does everyone here
know I'm a bloke called Gaffer who plays with his Wii? I
could be a 95yo lady with a zimmer frame and matching duffle coat for all you know.
Well this is where the Mii's come into it. As far as I know, people make 2 sorts of Mii's. One is a fairly accurate (well, as much as can be) depiction of you that you use for your gaming icon and to huff and puff around the Wii Tennis court.
The second sort of Mii is the novelty Mii.....either obtained from the internet or made yourself.....but that is quite recognisable as a fiction, such as:
When you message someone on your Wii, chances are you've set their truer likeness Mii to their address entry.
So NOW we can put faces to the names. To be fair, we've been able to do this if we wish, for some time with chat clients and the like, but Mii's are
focused on it.
All of a sudden, what seems like a good idea has the ability to be abused. Look at it this way...
Dirty Old Man (DOM) has a glance at his Mii Parade. Whilst there, he notices that there's a Mii that looks like this wondering around:
What do you think this represents? An actual likeness or a "fun" fictitious character? Chances are it's the former. So DOM puts this Mii into his Mii Channel and proceeds to message them and eventually befriend them (I find the word "grooming" to be inadeqaute.....it's not ugly enough for such a despicable act imo). To make matters worse, DOM is perfectly capable of naming
his Wii "Little Princess" and using something like this as his Mii:
How will anyone know any different?
To make matters EVEN worse, there are sites that even allow people to
geographically map where they live! This includes sites such as
miiplaza (the source of those random piccies) and
mapwii. I'm not saying they are bad in themselves, just that they have the capacity for being dangerous sources of information for the unscrupulous (I myself use both sites, but I'm old enough to be aware that people who request my wii code may not be who they say they are...and have instructed friends'n'family to do the same).
Back to the DOM, he now has a name, a likely true image (albeit a "photofit" one), as well as a geographical location of someone....all obtained fairly easily.
This is a dangerous cocktail imho.
I mentioned battening down the hatches earlier? Well you'd have thought that Parental Controls on the Wii would add deadlocks.
Not so. I find the Parental controls to be frustrating to say the least. For a start, the BIGGEST disadvantage is that to enter the 4 digit pin you choose, you have to visibally choose numbers from a ruddy great keypad on the screen.
Any monkey with even half a brain can simply look at the screen, memorise the number and there goes the security down the drain. There is
reason to cover up the hole-in-the-wall as much as possible when withdrawing cash you know........but maybe Nintendo staff only use cheques? :razz:
The other day, I thought I'd experiment with this system (part of what prompted this blog entry) and set the Wii to "restrict internet".
Tried it. Erm......everything I chose restricted apart from the internet :x
Turn console off, then on....same problem with internet set to restricted but actually not restricted at all. 30min later, internet channel decides to go restricted all of a sudden (
after i had, in fact, switched it off)
.
Also, why do I need to keep entering the PIN to alter certain system settings like "connection test", but not others like "video settings"?
Overall it looks to be a pretty unpolished and poorly thought out affair on Ninty's part. I would welcome a future update that selectively allows PIN control (with dicrete *'s rather than numbers appearing) whenever you wish to add someone to your address book alone rather than the hodgepodge we have now.
The I hear that on the success of the Mii's, Sony decides to create it's own online community channel that looks like a cross between the sims and the Mii Channel. This brings home the advantage the Wii has in having Mii's that still have a small degree of anonymity built in by the virtue of the fact that they're not fully 100% accurate.
However, not to be undone, Ninty soon announce a Mii Popularity Channel, where you can now have your Mii hosted in "pageants" on Ninty's servers in popularity contests.
I find the concept quite bizarre but also think it simply increases the chance of complete strangers anonymously having access to others.
Nintendo will need to tread VERY carefully here if it is to maintain a family friendly online system and not, imho, go chasing after what Sony is or isn't trying to copy.
Despite all my apparent doom'n'gloom, there
are simple ways to be safe(r) with your Wii:
1) Treat the Wii as you would MSN.....just because it's all cuddly and fun doesn't mean the people you meet online are.
2) Vet the Mii's that are added to the address book/Mii Channel or that turn up in your Mii Parade as best as you can.
3) DEFINITELY vet the messages being sent from the Wii and being recieved (easier as I presume it would be easy to tell from the grammer the rough age of who wrote it.....not foolproof I know, but a good guide nonetheless).
4) Ensure no personal details such as phone numbers or addresses are being transmitted
5) Ensure you've set your connection to use WPA or WPA2 security...less chance of someone "hacking" your network and gleaning info from it.
Again, I don't mean to be alarmist. The Wii is meant to be about FUN in a safe environment........but it should be thought of as any "internet enabled" machine, it has the ability to be misused.
As long as you keep this in mind, you should have no problems enjoying the Wii to it's fullest.
So have Fun, but above all,
be safe.
Mii and Miiy security.
Linear Mode
