Apple Awarded 'Anti-Sexting' Patent

[notjustjay]

What they should patent is the "txt-speak to English" translator.

"sup d00d ima cmn ovr @ 6 k lol"

becomes

"Hello old bean, I trust you have been keeping in good health and spirits. Please be advised that I shall be stopping by for a visitation this afternoon at six o'clock or thereabouts, subject to your pending approval, of course. (The alternative scenario: I could simply drop by unannounced, much to your great surprise and consternation. No, dear friend, I would certainly not inconvenience you such. It is to laugh!) Sending my dearest regards!"

 

[Surely]

What, no Brett Favre jokes yet?


And seriously people, read the article before you comment.

 

[backinblack875]

How about parents start parenting.


If you are worried about sexting maybe your child shouldn't have an iPhone. Just amazes me how technology is replacing parenting.

how is it replacing parenting... maybe their parents want them to enjoy technology and just because you can do bad stuff on it doesn't mean you shouldn't get it... and they cant monitor kids all the time to make sure they dont sext, so apple is assisting them and HELPING them parent.... gosh

maybe parents should keep their kids at home all the time, remove all technology from their lives, and go with them anywhere they go to make sure they dont do bad stuff..... guess what, everywhere they go they can do **** like this

 

[Mister Snitch]

What, no Brett Favre jokes yet?

Devices equipped with this feature will be known as 'Favre phones' and will be issued to all pro athletes. The savings in lawsuits alone means the phones will pay for themselves many times over!

 

[Small White Car]

What they should patent is the "txt-speak to English" translator.

Ok, now THAT would be super helpful!

 

[CFreymarc]

There are anonymous IM web sites with mobile page layouts already. Someone puts up a block, there is always a way around it. Comes down to making the block enough of a pain to where your addressed audience gives up on trying to bypass.

My favorite is a feature suite shown at the CTIA show a few years ago where a parent could log into a web site and read every text message, and call sent and received of phone numbers within a specific family plan.

Also, in the same service, a parent could black list any phone number they don't want connecting to their child's phone. Even more restricted, they could create a "white list" of only numbers that could connect with a phone and remotely disable a phone around "bed time" so they couldn't text with their friends in the middle of the night.

No domestic US carrier has implemented this. I think it is in use overseas in a few places.

 

[TheRealTVGuy]

Here we go again...

Alright, so already people are screaming "1984!" and "Big Brother!" while obviously only scanning through the story.

I read this to be another optional feature JUST LIKE THE PARENTAL CONTROLS IN iTunes that have been there for years.

For parents it will be a way to try and reinforce what they're teaching at home. For the rest of us, this will be a feature that is ignored and forgotten within the Preferences menu.

Calm down! You folks can still do your FaceTime sexy dances and all the other stuff you feel the need to use your device for...

Sheesh!

 

[ComputersaysNo]

I am gonna Ping you so hard tonight.

Send from my iphone

 

[HLdan]

LOL, the only people upset about this are the very people that want to participate in such xxx-rated antics.

 

[TheRealTVGuy]

What they should patent is the "txt-speak to English" translator.

"sup d00d ima cmn ovr @ 6 k lol"

becomes

"Hello old bean, I trust you have been keeping in good health and spirits. Please be advised that I shall be stopping by for a visitation this afternoon at six o'clock or thereabouts, subject to your pending approval, of course. (The alternative scenario: I could simply drop by unannounced, much to your great surprise and consternation. No, dear friend, I would certainly not inconvenience you such. It is to laugh!) Sending my dearest regards!"

+1 Awesome post... I needed a good chuckle today. Thanks!

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

how is it replacing parenting... maybe their parents want them to enjoy technology and just because you can do bad stuff on it doesn't mean you shouldn't get it... and they cant monitor kids all the time to make sure they dont sext, so apple is assisting them and HELPING them parent.... gosh

maybe parents should keep their kids at home all the time, remove all technology from their lives, and go with them anywhere they go to make sure they dont do bad stuff..... guess what, everywhere they go they can do **** like this

Or maybe kids shouldn't be running around with iPhones.

 

[CFreymarc]

Do you really think you can teach todays kids proper behavior by censoring a couple of words on their phone?

There is nothing new under the sun. All comes down to winning the hearts and minds of your kids and to set a good example. This goes all the way back to ancient times. You are a passive aggressive little one, you kids can end up the same way. Technology like this is mostly stop gap for bad parenting.

 

[ctdonath]

Well, I thought it was clear I was talking about something the kid knew about. I am totally opposed to anything like this happening without full disclosure.

It was obvious. Whether the kid knows ahead of time or not, some pretty big walls will go up fast when he does, and he'll figure out alternative communication methods too.

 

[Trius]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

\/\/|-|3R3 7|-|3R3'5 4 \/\/1LL, 7|-|3R3'5 4 \/\/4'/...

 

[backinblack875]

Or maybe kids shouldn't be running around with iPhones.

-_- fine.

 

[notjustjay]

Also, in the same service, a parent could black list any phone number they don't want connecting to their child's phone. Even more restricted, they could create a "white list" of only numbers that could connect with a phone and remotely disable a phone around "bed time" so they couldn't text with their friends in the middle of the night.

I think the easy solution is for the parent to not subscribe to an unlimited texting plan for their kids.

If you know it's going to cost you 10 cents, or if you know you only have 100 or 500 or however many text messages in a month, you're going to ration them. You're going to be a little more careful about what you say.

A few weeks ago I was visiting a friend for a weekend up at his cottage. His son, had a 16-year-old friend over too, and he spent the entire weekend texting away on his phone with some girl he liked. All day long, about every five minutes. Late at night, I heard him sneak out of his bedroom and sit down by a wall charger in the kitchen, charging his phone and continuing to text. I found out that a few weeks later he got his cell phone bill: $500+ in extra charges for all those text messages.

Honestly, I don't know how kids do it. I'm not much past 30, so I apparently just missed this whole texting generation. I think I send at MOST two or three texts per month.

 

[seb-opp]

is there really a need to censor private conversations??

 

[Small White Car]

It was obvious. Whether the kid knows ahead of time or not, some pretty big walls will go up fast when he does, and he'll figure out alternative communication methods too.

Not sure why. If I knew my mom got a tally count of how many swear words I used per week I might use less swear words, but what other "wall" would go up? Why would I stop talking about particular things because of that? It's not like she know what I'm saying.

 

[urbanj]

apples really sticking its pickle in peoples back door. While I am not for that I do enjoy playing just the tip with my girlfriends soft taco.

this patent is useless IMO

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

I think the easy solution is for the parent to not subscribe to an unlimited texting plan.

If you know it's going to cost you 10 cents, or if you know you only have 100 or 500 or however many text messages in a month, you're going to ration them. You're going to be a little more careful about what you say.

A few weeks ago I was visiting a friend for a weekend up at his cottage. His son, had a 16-year-old friend over too, and he spent the entire weekend texting away on his phone with some girl he liked. All day long, about every five minutes. Late at night, I heard him sneak out of his bedroom and sit down by a wall charger in the kitchen, charging his phone and continuing to text. I found out that a few weeks later he got his cell phone bill: $500+ in extra charges for all those text messages.

Honestly, I don't know how kids do it. I'm not much past 30, so I apparently just missed this whole texting generation. I think I send at MOST two or three texts per month.

The problem these days are parents give in. Kids have WAY to much control these days.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Good ole phone sex comes back into fashion

In america, you listen to sex on the phone.
In soviet russia your phone listens to your sex.


Or maybe some russia experts find better jokes, i'm too drunk (vodka Smirnoff + lime juice on ice).


More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(fruit)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smirnoff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakov_Smirnoff

 

[randfee2]

OMG, oh you prude Steveness, or should I say prude Yanks in general?
This is a new high of ridiculousness! I'd be pissed they waste ressources on this crap if it weren't so funny! What's next though, will they filter inappropriate phone calls as well?

 

[Small White Car]

The problem these days are parents give in. Kids have WAY to much control these days.

Yeah, and 15 years ago I used to talk to my girlfriend on the phone for 2 or 3 hours a night.

No different, really, so I guess that makes me one of the problem children too. Too bad my parents weren't stricter with me, I might have turned into a productive member of society.

 

[ericinboston]

This is patented!? The same "idea" that's been around in email filters for decades?!

The idea is fine and would likely be welcome depending on it's implemented (like a corporate iPhone and banning terms like "stock tip" or "quarterly earnings")...but a patent is granted to this old idea? Lame. The US Patent service needs a huge overhaul when it comes to software patents.

 

[CFreymarc]

I think the easy solution is for the parent to not subscribe to an unlimited texting plan for their kids.

If you know it's going to cost you 10 cents, or if you know you only have 100 or 500 or however many text messages in a month, you're going to ration them. You're going to be a little more careful about what you say.

A few weeks ago I was visiting a friend for a weekend up at his cottage. His son, had a 16-year-old friend over too, and he spent the entire weekend texting away on his phone with some girl he liked. All day long, about every five minutes. Late at night, I heard him sneak out of his bedroom and sit down by a wall charger in the kitchen, charging his phone and continuing to text. I found out that a few weeks later he got his cell phone bill: $500+ in extra charges for all those text messages.

Honestly, I don't know how kids do it. I'm not much past 30, so I apparently just missed this whole texting generation. I think I send at MOST two or three texts per month.

I know this scene. Like anything else, take the phone away from the kid. Let him run his fit. Have him do something local and go from there. One set of parents I know have three teen boys and one teen girl. They have a family plan and manage it very well.

In the morning, they give the kids their phones at breakfast. Tell them they look over the itemized bill every month so the will know who they are calling and texting. They gather the phones right before dinner so the evening is family time. If they want someone to talk with, they invite them over to meet in person.

On weekends, kids get the phones if they are doing something on their own if whomever is supervising them approves kids with phones. They also have family outing days where only mom and dad have phones. That are the rules, they don't care how other kids use cell phones.

In fact some Boy Scout, Girl Scout and American Heritage Girl troops are implementing "no cell phone or other electronic device" weekends for outings where only the leaders have the phones and are used on an as needed basis.

All comes down to responsibility and not giving the phone to the kid and forgetting about it.