Did USAID pay Nintendo of America over $9 million "to promote the inclusion of adults in children's media, to study infantilism and the Peter Pan Syndrome"? No, that's not true: The image circulating on social media is fake. A search of the website usaspending.gov does not show any such payment to Nintendo of America Inc. The fabricated image resembling official data was originally posted anonymously on a 4chan /pol/ messageboard.
The fake image was shared in a post (archived here) published on X on February 19, 2024. It was captioned:
Games are weapons military funded? Anybody call it? Apologies always accepted.
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Feb 20 15:36:59 2025 UTC)
This post contains what appears to be a screenshot (pictured above) of an anonymous post taken from a real thread No.496985006 /pol/ 4chan.org messageboard on February 9, 2025. The fake image is no longer visible in the thread. The screenshot posted on X contains this text:
Anonymous (ID: SpM6QA8q)
[GIGA HAPPENING]
02/09/25(Sun) 14:19:47 No.496985006Recipient
NINTENDO OF AMERICA
UEI: MRMSDA7LK8H4
Locale: United States of America
Amount $9,143,280.00Awarded by
Department of State: Media Service
ASST NON SPRMC023VC0074 1910
Ends 2025-06-30Description
TO PROMOTE THE INCLUSION OF ADULTS IN CHILDREN'S MEDIA, TO STUDY INFANTILISM AND THE PETER PAN SYNDROME
NINTENDO USAID.png
27 KB PNG
MULTINATIONAL MEDIA COMPANY, NINTENDO, REPORTEDLY RECEIVED $9 MILLION FROM USAID FOR STUDIES RELATED TO MENCHILDRENISM.
This information in the screenshot that was posted on 4chan is not authentic. Lead Stories searched for "Nintendo of America" (archived here) on the usaspending.gov website and there is no report of an amount awarded from the Department of State to "promote the inclusion of adults in children's media, to study infantilism and the Peter Pan Syndrome." The results are pictured below:
(Source: usaspending.gov screenshot taken on Thu Feb 20 16:22:43 2025 UTC)
There is a record of a March 21, 2008, $3,802 payment (archived here) from the Department of Veterans Affairs to purchase "Nintendo WII Console" under the product or service code "6515: Medical and Surgical Instruments, Equipment, and Supplies."
A Google search for the phrase "to promote the inclusion of adults in children's media, to study infantilism and the Peter Pan Syndrome" returned no relevant results.
Lead Stories reached out to Nintendo and USAID by email and we will update this story if they respond.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving USAID can be found here.
