Did You Know? Password Protect Your Wii Points

[wraggster]

via wired

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a writer pitches an idea to their editor, the editor approves, the writer starts to research it, and bam, an overlooked fact downs the whole thing. Such was the case with a post planned for earlier this week, entitled "No Wii Point Password Protection? Thanks a lot, Jerks." Then I discovered you can password protect those Wii Points, after all. Oops.

Turns out it's a rather simple process to boot:

1. Hit the Wii Options button in the lower left-hand corner of the Wii Menu and navigate to Wii Settings.
2. Click the arrow on the right side of the screen to bring up Page 2, choose Parental Controls.
3. Go through the process of creating a PIN and a secret question.
4. In Other Settings, select "Yes" when asked about restricting the use of Wii Points. Go ahead and limit use of Internet Channel, News Channel, and the highest gaming rating allowed if you're feeling adventurous.

Why any sane, childless person would bother with this after the jump.

The Wii Shop Channel doesn't retain credit card information on the server a la Sony and Microsoft, so there's no worries about fraudulent charges by other users. I'm also aware that many, like myself, only purchase Wii Points when there's something they actually want, the odd leftover sum typically not enough to buy a NES game.

But then Christmas came, and with it, a deluge of Wii Point Cards. Because I'm horrible at keeping track of flimsy plastic cards, I made sure to redeem them all right away, which left me with something like 800 million Wii Points on my account. And considering the Wii's popularity among drunken college students, well, I really don't want to come home and find out someone thought Urban Champion sounded like, so totally awesome, dude. Plus the more standing between me and the impulse purchase of yet another shooter, the better

[curt_grymala]

Yes, in fact, I did know.

Being that I have three young children, you better believe I set the parental controls on my Wii.

[curt_grymala]

Something that should be added to this, however (I just remembered this when I had to get online today with my Wii), is that Nintendo, for some completely unknown reason, does not hide your password when you're typing it in.

So, if anybody is in the room when you type in your password, they'll know what your password is.

[shadowcode]

Plus when using the internet channel it will prompt you for the password regardless of the setting.

[Kramer]

Something that should be added to this, however (I just remembered this when I had to get online today with my Wii), is that Nintendo, for some completely unknown reason, does not hide your password when you're typing it in.

So, if anybody is in the room when you type in your password, they'll know what your password is.

Yeah that better be fixed in the final version because it can be damn annoying, just imagine having to kick everyone out of the room while you type in a password.

Plus when using the internet channel it will prompt you for the password regardless of the setting.

It shouldnt do that.