False news of pedophile using Splatoon to contact underaged victim broadcast in Japan
A major Japanese news outlet reported on March 27 that a 35-year-old man had been arrested for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl after contacting her via chat in Nintendo’s casual TPS Splatoon. The report even made it to television, but netizens familiar with the game were quick to point out a major contradiction – Splatoon does not have a chat function. The false report and emphasis on the game’s title have angered many users.
According to (now revised) initial articles and TV reports by Fuji News Network (FNN), a 35-year-old office worker from Japan contacted a female junior high school student (14 years old at the time) via “Splatoon’s chat function.” This escalated to the man sexually assaulting her on two occasions in 2023 while taking photographs and videos of the act. The incident was uncovered by police in March 2024 after an anonymous tip-off, and the culprit has since admitted to violating child prostitution and pornography laws.
The news focused significantly on the word “Splatoon,” with TV chyrons reading “Contact established through popular game Splatoon.” However, as it has been pointed out by netizens and Nintendo themselves, Splatoon does not have a chat function, making the report misleading. FNN has since issued an apology and corrected the article, which now states that the pedophile had contacted the victim through X (formerly Twitter), while using common interests (one of which was Splatoon) to get close to her. FNN’s apology ends with, “We were informed by Nintendo that there is no chat function in Splatoon. We apologize.”
The mistake has caused many negative reactions from the public for doing damage to Splatoon’s reputation – a game known for being family- and child-friendly despite belonging to the shooter genre. Last year, reports of a man being arrested after stalking a woman through the MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 had, although truthful, also been criticized by Japanese users for mentioning the game’s name in their headlines.
Amber V
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I think it’s very important for news media to begin to verify sources before reporting publicly on things. Especially maybe asking friends or family if there is a chat function in the game or at least saying if it is possible to do so. Not doing so only opens up media for users to try and create false information and to vilify things and discredit trust in institutions as a whole especially News companies that are more national.