Nintendo recently dropped the Nintendo Switch 22.0.0 update (which went live on March 17), and one of its new "Parental Controls" features has sent the internet into a frenzy. Now, whenever a parental control password is successfully entered on the console, parents get an instant notification on their phone. Netizens are already calling it a "catastrophic update for kids."
According to official explanations, with this update, any successful entry of a parental control password will be logged in the "Nintendo Switch Parental Controls" mobile app, and parents will receive an immediate push notification. In other words, even if kids manage to "crack" the password, their parents will know about it instantly.
Of course, for parents, this is a super convenient feature, helping prevent secret playtime or limiting how long their little ones can game. But flip the coin, and for those kids, it's shaping up to be a nightmare update.
One X (formerly Twitter) user posted screenshots highlighting the update's key points, declaring, "This design is truly despair-inducing...www," which quickly caught the attention of many who hadn't realized such an update was coming.
The news sparked a massive online discussion, with many jokingly sharing their own experiences: "Kids are gonna cry," "If this happened when I was a kid, I'd be devastated," and "It's completely blocked all paths to secret gaming." Some netizens also pointed out that in the past, they could bypass notifications by adjusting the console's time, but with this new mechanism, there are virtually no loopholes left.
Beyond that, plenty of users reminisced about their past "parental control cracking" tactics, like secretly using a parent's phone to unlink accounts, disabling notifications, or even pre-setting their own passwords back in the Nintendo 3DS era. However, most agree that this update significantly beefs up protection, escalating the "digital arms race" between parents and kids.
On a different note, some users analyzed the change from a security perspective, suggesting it might be related to the increasing number of incidents involving underage players in online interactions. The update aims to give parents better oversight of their children's gaming habits, thereby reducing risks.
Aside from the parental control tweaks, this update also includes optimizations for virtual game card operations, a new memo feature for the friend list, and overall system stability improvements.
All in all, this update is being hailed as a "massive win for parents," leaving many players lamenting, "Good thing this feature wasn't around when I was a kid, or even secret playtime would have been completely locked down XD."
via： togetter