I call bs. You don't need to monitor the chats between friends, and this system has no lobby from what I can see. This is data collection. Nintendo sees the money here and is collecting chat data they will sell. The company makes great games but their morals are god awful....just like most of these companies. Don't let that family friendly bs confuse you. This is pure greed.
Unfortunately, I think that today's legal environment means that if you're the middle man facilitating an unencrypted chat conversation, you do need to protect yourself.
If the Switch chat platform was used to organize a terrorist plot, racist malfeasance, violence, or other evil, I think it would be difficult for Nintendo to disclaim all responsibility. While I think that morally they would not be responsible, legal responsibility (especially if fractional liability is in play), is an entirely different question.
By actively recording chats, Nintendo is in somewhat of a similar position by having access to the chat, but can disclaim
at least some liability by foisting the monitoring on to the end user. In other words, if Nintendo didn't receive a report, they can assume that nothing nefarious occurred in the chat. Trouble is, that concept breaks down with two conspiring actors on each end of the chat.
