Miiverse blocks those aged 12 and under from sending or receiving direct friend requests

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Austin(@NE_Austin) in News, Wii U

Following their ever-present strategy of protecting folks on their online services, Nintendo has announced that anyone under the age of 12 will be unable to directly friend request (or be requested by) other users via Miiverse, and will instead have to manually input Nintendo Network IDs via the Home Menu. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise given their past with online security, and since it doesn’t affect the majority of users who would be interested in requesting each other (or the majority of people who own a Wii U already) they’re probably not expecting too much backlash.

“”For the protection of younger users, direct friend requests are not possible in Miiverse for users aged 12 and under. At the same time, younger users can make friends on Wii U outside Miiverse by entering each other’s Network IDs in the friend list on the HOME menu. We encourage younger users to make friends on Wii U only if they are friends in real life (such as friends from the same school or neighbourhood). Therefore, do not attempt to exchange your Nintendo Network ID with other users on Miiverse.”

– Miiverse Code of Conduct

Sounds like a safe plan to me!

Via Eurogamer