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21-year-old hacker Ryan Hernandez has pleaded guilty after an FBI investigation revealed the extent of his online crimes and, more damagingly, a collection of images showing child abuse.

Hernandez, who hails from California, had a history of trying to hack Nintendo's servers. His first attempt, back when he was still a minor, ultimately failed and brought him to the attention of the authorities, who warned him to cease and desist. He failed to heed that warning and resumed his illegal activities in 2018.

Hernandez's crimes include sharing the Nintendo Switch's software development kit, a breach of security that was taken by others and use to build unofficial mod tools for the platform. He also stole information about unreleased games.

After boasting of his achievements on social media, the FBI pounced again, and in the course of their investigation, Hernandez's collection of pictures and videos showing child sexual abuse came to light. They also found devices designed to access stolen games, and thousands of files.

Now, after pleading guilty of both fraud and possession of abusive images, it is being recommended that he serve a three-year sentence, although it could end up being much longer. He also has to pay Nintendo more than $258k.