Come on Apple! This is exactly the wrong direction, instead of opening up the App Store to more adult content (with appropriate high age restrictions of 21+ or so) they become more and more prude...
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Apple Now Blocking 'Overtly Sexual' Apps from App Store
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Why should apple have to allow anything and everything into their store?
Why is it censorship?
Is it censorship if a religious book store refuse to sell the SI swimsuit edition?
Why shouldn't apple be extended the right to limit what they place on their shelves?
Perhaps
The problem with this view is that there is no other store to shop at, unlike desktop computer software options. It's easy to say that they should offer parental control options so that we can all safely buy our porn, but the point is, they don't want to be seen as advocating the sale/use of porn- even though they know most people are freely accessing it on their computers anyway. The big problem is that Apple needs to allow other means for acquiring apps that are not controlled by them, so that they can be absolved of promoting adult-content. The slippery slope though, is that they allow violent games and uncensored music- so you can't say porn is bad when you allow the other stuff in. Obscenity is in the eye/ear of the beholder. Would I rather my kid hear the F word in a song over accidentally witnessing an extreme close-up of a BJ? You bet, but I'd prefer they don't get exposed to any of that.
Good riddence! Apple boasts about how many apps they have, half nowdays seem to be "apps" for viewing hot Asian school girls or whatever, making it hard to see other apps profiled.
When the App store was released Jobs promised to keep it smut free, and he should.
If you want porn on your phone it is just a second away via the browser.
When the App store was released Jobs promised to keep it smut free, and he should.
If you want porn on your phone it is just a second away via the browser.
Because OMG OMG, it is just so unfair!
In all seriousness, you have a very good point.
I too get concerned when perfectly good electrons are wasted on porn...all those bits and bytes wasted, just wasted. Thats why I have joined the "Porn & Erotica Watchers United", otherwise known as PEW.U.
We are dedicated to seeing that no electrons go to their death without being used first. It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
This is the side effect of their being only one App store. You wind up with a tug-of-war to set the boundaries of what is acceptable. It's like having just one book store in town or just one newspaper, one radio station or one TV station.
Somehow Apple should make multiple store fronts. Then you could isolate violence porn from sexual porn from non-porn apps. Meanwhile everything would still be scanned for malware, viruses and bugs.
Somehow Apple should make multiple store fronts. Then you could isolate violence porn from sexual porn from non-porn apps. Meanwhile everything would still be scanned for malware, viruses and bugs.
Your a raging liberal, don't make me laugh, sound more like another conservative Christian with issues about anything sexual.
I can't even imagine who would complaint about something that does not even have pictures of actually naked bodies. Oh wait I can imagine who would be complaining about basically everything sexual in nature.
er - if you're sick of seeing them in the top 25 apps, doesn't that mean that a bunch of people are downloading them, therefore they are popular?
Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean you ban it.
I agree, create a 17+ view, defaulted to off to appease those easily shocked, and make sure that no 17+ content appears in the store, charts, featured pages etc if you have it turned off.
simples
Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean you ban it.
I agree, create a 17+ view, defaulted to off to appease those easily shocked, and make sure that no 17+ content appears in the store, charts, featured pages etc if you have it turned off.
simples
And when does a dictatorship, ever change, I doubt that going to happen any time soon. I am sure in the long term Apple will even go all ballistic on the iphone hacking soon enough now that they don't have to worry about loosing revenue.
We would not want sexually explicit content on the iPad now would we people.
Because OMG OMG, it is just so unfair!
In all seriousness, you have a very good point.
Now if they only would take the time to build it into the next version of OS X so that you can view it their either, maybe have some Bible versus pop up every time you go anywhere unsavory. Or why not some Koran versus we would not want men to get any ideas.
If you feel compelled to look at suggestive material jail break and really enjoy.
Who is saying suggestive images or porn is bad? The way I read it is Apple doesn't care to delve into that arena. they want to sell violent games instead of porn. Is walmart, target, gamestop or bestbuy selling porn? I don't recall seeing that section but they surely sell violent video games.
As for Apple being the only store in town; I believe disk aid allows you to movie pictures and videos on and off the device. Download the pictures you want and put them on the phone.
If complaints caused this, they why not complain back.
While these apps are not my cup of tea, I find it more offensive that they are being blocked then however puerile the apps themselves might be. Seems to me the appropriate response is for those of us that shop at the app store to complain back to Apple that placing such restrictions are odious. If they are listening to the customers that find these apps distasteful then they should also hear from those of us that find there removal even more distasteful disregarding whether we would have bought the apps in question to begin with.
Since the email links can be a bit hard to find, here are a couple.
iTunes Store Customer Service iTunes Feedback
As an aside, I agree with those that think this stuff should be in the equivalent of the back room of a video store and included something similar in the reverse-complaint I sent to Apple.
While these apps are not my cup of tea, I find it more offensive that they are being blocked then however puerile the apps themselves might be. Seems to me the appropriate response is for those of us that shop at the app store to complain back to Apple that placing such restrictions are odious. If they are listening to the customers that find these apps distasteful then they should also hear from those of us that find there removal even more distasteful disregarding whether we would have bought the apps in question to begin with.
Since the email links can be a bit hard to find, here are a couple.
iTunes Store Customer Service iTunes Feedback
As an aside, I agree with those that think this stuff should be in the equivalent of the back room of a video store and included something similar in the reverse-complaint I sent to Apple.
sure, 14 year old boys flooding the app store with junky psudo-porn apps is annoying, but this is censorship plain and simple. there are less extreme alternatives, such as a new app store category with parental controls.
apple sure is alienating lots of people lately.
apple sure is alienating lots of people lately.
Sigh. I remember the days when Apple and the other early computer manufacturers first began offering their amazing new toys to the masses. It was heralded as beginning of the Personal Computer Revolution, a world changing event that would put amazing power in the hands of the individual. Being aware of the fact that "knowledge is power", many of us dreamed of an exciting, brave new world in which literally every individual would be empowered and free to explore, learn, and grow in whatever direction they might desire.
Now, a couple of decades later, Apple seems hellbent on returning its users to the "good ol' days" of the 1960s, an age when punch cards and dinosauric closed systems ruled the earth.
Some may love the warm and fuzzy feeling from living a "protected" life within a walled garden, and some might be content to let a company do all their thinking for them. Personally, I've glad we still have other options open to us...
Now, a couple of decades later, Apple seems hellbent on returning its users to the "good ol' days" of the 1960s, an age when punch cards and dinosauric closed systems ruled the earth.
Some may love the warm and fuzzy feeling from living a "protected" life within a walled garden, and some might be content to let a company do all their thinking for them. Personally, I've glad we still have other options open to us...
Why were apps like this removed and playboy's left behind?
Oh wait, because Playboy are big business print media and these people are just dirty little pornographers.
That's ok then. No conflict of interest there.
Why are other offensive apps left behind? I think iFart apps are offensive (though I wouldn't push my thoughts onto others normally), and I'm worried about the "iGun" style apps too.
What about Grand Theft Auto's recent approval? If looking at breasts on a computer is harmful then why isn't random senseless violence and killing on a computer harmful too?
Why were these apps accepted in the first place if Apple don't want adult themes on their platform? Apple appear to be making this up as they go along.
Finally. I'm glad they're starting to crack down in the App Store... I wonder if there will ever be an "Adult" section... Lets see how this one goes, Porn Vs. Apple.
"Free Speech as long as it doesn't offend me" is no free speech at all dude. Free speech is "I don't agree with what you're saying but I'll defend your right to say it to the death".
!Alice, you are aware, aren't you, that the app contained no porn... no photo whatsoever until the user added whatever photo they wanted? It was a simple app that caused an added photo to wiggle...any photo could become an amusing photo because it wiggled.
I think the developer messed up by suggesting, with the app name, that boobs might be the most amusing thing to make wiggle. Not even bare boobs were necessary to become amusing.
So, Apple didn't ban something pornographic but something that COULD become a bit rude IF the user added certain of their own photos to the app. That's like banning Sharpie® pens because you can stick them in body orfices.
Now the Mobile Safari program does allow real porno to be downloaded, ran, or viewed. If Apple is going to ban apps based on how they may be used, and not because they have porno as part of the app, then they need to police their own apps first.
Isn't their also an app that allows a user to draw crude representations of genitelia on the touch screen... Oh My Gawd!!!
Here's my dilemma-- I don't want to interfere with quality content even if it includes nudity. My displeasure with these soft-porn apps isn't that they're nearly nude, or overtly sexual, or objectifying women-- my displeasure is that they're clutter. I don't know how they keep filling all of the charts, if there are that many repressed people out there that need pinup girls on their phone, or if these companies are gaming the system somehow, but I find it annoying.
The answer I would usually give is "tag and opt-in"-- but that leads to two problems: 1) a proliferation of tags makes the interface unmanageable and leads to just as much outrage about what deserves what tags, and 2) there is a lot of "mature" content that I would like to know is available and it's going to get lumped in with this nonsense forcing me to block stuff I don't care to block or keep putting up with the garbage.
Part of the reason I gravitate to certain entities and businesses, is because their decisions resonate with my preferences. Apple seems to fit that model. For the most part, I trust them to make the right decision.
But I worry about the slippery slope.
Maybe the right answer isn't to block mature content, but to tag stuff as "Apple would block this" and give users the option of agreeing or opening the floodgates. The risk there, however, is that Apple would likely apply that tag to more items than I'd like because it was optional.
Not a lot of good choices here.
On a related point, I was pretty pissed when I walked into Gymboree looking for a pack of smokes and a shot of Jack and they totally refused to sell them to me. Anti-capitalist dictators!
The answer I would usually give is "tag and opt-in"-- but that leads to two problems: 1) a proliferation of tags makes the interface unmanageable and leads to just as much outrage about what deserves what tags, and 2) there is a lot of "mature" content that I would like to know is available and it's going to get lumped in with this nonsense forcing me to block stuff I don't care to block or keep putting up with the garbage.
Part of the reason I gravitate to certain entities and businesses, is because their decisions resonate with my preferences. Apple seems to fit that model. For the most part, I trust them to make the right decision.
But I worry about the slippery slope.
Maybe the right answer isn't to block mature content, but to tag stuff as "Apple would block this" and give users the option of agreeing or opening the floodgates. The risk there, however, is that Apple would likely apply that tag to more items than I'd like because it was optional.
Not a lot of good choices here.
Right on the money. Apple has shaped the experience and users can either buy into it or buy Android. People act like exercising their choice is a threat that Apple can't bear-- that if they get on a forum like this and scream that they're going to buy a Blackberry that Job's will spend the night crying into his pillow. Apple know's the decisions they're making, and they're walking the line between customer choice and a structured experience. That's what iPhone is.
On a related point, I was pretty pissed when I walked into Gymboree looking for a pack of smokes and a shot of Jack and they totally refused to sell them to me. Anti-capitalist dictators!