Nintendo Suspends SpotPass Feature of Swapnote Service

Nintendo has suspended the SpotPass feature for the Swapnote service on the 3DS because of the exchange of offensive materials.

Nintendo announced the suspension of the SpotPass feature on Oct. 31. The suspension is due to the fact that some consumers, including minors, have exchanged friend codes online and used SpotPass delivery to exchange offensive material in the form of photos.

Nintendo said, "We are very sorry for any inconvenience to the many consumers who have been using this service responsibly; however this decision was made considering the point that many minors also use this feature of Swapnote. Thank you for your understanding."

While the SpotPass feature has been suspended, Nintendo gave no word on how StreetPass will be affected, so you can presumably still exchange notes with other 3DS users without the need to send them via WiFi. But for now, we'll just have to live without the ability to send goofy drawings directly to our friends.