Handing a child an internet-connected device that you don't understand well enough to monitor is bad parenting. Period. (Assuming that you care about things like porn, and who your kid might be talking to, and that sort of thing.) I don't see how ignorance is a reasonable excuse. You either figure out how to monitor what your kid is doing with the device or you don't give it to him to begin with.
I mean, parental controls on the App Store are the tiniest slice of the problem. It's going to take Junior about eight seconds to be happily surfing through all the porn he wants in Mobile Safari. Or is it Apple's responsibility to somehow figure out a way to build a nudity-proof web browser, too?
I completely agree with you.
Furthermore, i think a parent who knowingly (has an understanding of itunes and parental controls) lets their ten year old play violent video games or view sexually suggestive materials, is a better parent than one who doesn't want their kid to view anything "inappropriate," but has no idea how to use itunes, so their kid ends up viewing it anyway.
A good parent is not defined by what a parent approves of or doesn't approve of. A good parent is one that has enough involvement in their child's life, to help guide them in a direction that they find suitable. If they find Grand Theft Auto suitable, that is their business, as long as they took the time to understand the contents of the game, along with their child. Look, the bottom line is different kids should have different rules. It is the responsibility of the parents to know their child and be involved enough with what their child is up to.
IT IS NOT APPLE'S RESPONSIBILITY TO PARENT. The only real responsibility of Apple, when it comes to mature content in itunes, is to give individuals a viable way to avoid or block said content. I don't know about you, but my Cable Television Provider (ATT UVERSE) has loads of hardcore porn on demand at the click of a few buttons... Does this mean that ATT is pro-porn, because they give their customers the option to purchase access to it? NO. If you don't want it, then dont go looking for it. As long as Apple doesn't have it "in-your-face" on the front page, it doesn't matter. I am a developer, and realize that some developers of mature material might argue, that not being allowed on the front pages of itunes, could lower sales... The reality is though, that when it comes to porn, if people want it, they will sure as h*ll find it. (let me also make it clear, that i dont consider this new app "Hottest Girls" or whatever its called, to be pornographic... but it is adult enough to be considered for "special" alternative placement in itunes, so that an 8 year old doesn't come across it as easily.)
