Mar 23, 2012 - 8:29 am

3DS: Console Unwittingly at the Centre of Child Porn Scandal

It had the trappings of a standard transaction you see take place daily on Craigslist or Ebay-somebody decides to sell their used Nintendo DS online and someone buys it as a present for their child. Fairly standard happening except for two details which turned this mundane transaction into headline grabbing news. The seller forgot to remove child pornography stored in the unit. Moreover, the seller turned out to be a Catholic priest.

After getting the DS and inspecting its content, the mother from Montana who bought the unit went to the police. The police searched the seller’s home and found even more child pornography on his computer. The seller has been suspended by his parish and removed from his parish housing. Just judging from the reported facts of the case, it looks like being homeless is going to be the least of his worries. What a creep! This isn’t the first time that naughty images have been found on second-hand handheld gaming devices. Earlier, a child found pornography on his PSP. What made this case even more outrageous was the PSP was bought from retail giant Walmart. Then there’s also the story of the kid who found illegal drugs packed with his gaming manual.

Picture of Pink 3DS (Credit: Nintendo)

We hope the seller feels the full weight of the law if found guilty of owning pornographic images of minors. And parents can at least take this as a warning, to check second-hand hardware before giving it to their children. There really are some sick people in the world.