I’m not sure if this is a “win” for the morally grounded or just a political play that I’m missing, but Apple has recently taken down more than 5,000 apps that showed a little more skin that perhaps is appropriate.
The new guidelines are as follows (first pronounced against the App “Wobble iBoobs”):
- No images of men or women in bikinis.
- No skin.
- No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs.
- No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex, etc.
- Nothing that can be sexually arousing.
- No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content.
Huh.
From my perspective I simply don’t have the temptation to be downloading any of “those” types of apps in the first place (especially since my wife knows what I’m buying from the store anyways) and so it doesn’t necessarily bother me that the App Store is a bit “cleaner” now, but I know that it can be a bit frustrating for some who might be tempted in that way.
What are your thoughts? Is this a win for the morally conscientious or what?
[HT: MobileCrunch]
I think it’s great.. BUT they have to do all or none.. As an example, the playboy app is still there..
i bet that makes a lot of money for them… … hmm.
Apple has said before they make no money on the App Store and that it basically exists to sell hardware. I believe they’ve said the same thing about their cut of music sales. The percentage they get is basically overhead for the massive bandwidth and upkeep of maintaining both the largest and most popular app and music store in existence.
Doubt that they don’t make money on iTunes, but I’ve heard them say stuff like that, too.
I’m torn on this one. From a moral perspective, I don’t care to see those kinds of applications in the app store, and especially hate to see them in the lists of top apps. But as a software developer with some interest in developing iPhone applications, I think this kind of censorship is scary. Today it’s sex, but what if tomorrow Apple decides that religious applications could be offensive to someone and decides to pull those?
I’m sorry – but a religious app is not going to mess up a child’s innocence – if you know what I mean. You could NEVER compare the two.
Censorship in the app store is already legendary though. They’ve been arbitrarily yanking apps for a long time. Basically until Mozilla can come up with an open source mobile platform, Apple can be the App-crushing overlord.
But at the same time, censorship does suck…
It makes me happy because my kids like browsing through the app store with their ipods. They don’t have the password, but I was getting tired of all the sexually explicit apps showing up on the most popular lists.
It makes me happy knowing that kids are not able to just stumble on an icon of a girl in a thong. That has always bothered me about the App store.
I see potential trouble for a publicly traded company in the lines of free speech. Who knows? I guess local business can choose what kind of material they want to display though. Good for them in taking a “family friendly” stand. Not like the web browser on their can’t be pointed in that direction though.
Well, first off, I’m a little tighter on my wallet than most and haven’t purchased a new app in over 8 months.
With that said, the rule of “Nothing that can be sexually arousing”, seems to be a bit vague. Every person is different and is aroused differently(or so I assume). A rule that varies from person to person is normally not a good rule.
Anyhow, cleaning up something is never a bad thing, especially with all the media being very influential in the ‘sex’ department. More monitoring in that area is never a bad thing.
I don’t think it’s political as much as it is moral. And if it was political, I’m glad it happened regardless.
Me and my husband has had issues with this in the past and seeing that in the App store made me so uncomfortable. We have tried iphone accountability apps but even those apps are rated 17+ so when you block 17+ apps, you block the accountability apps as well.
I agree with the @Chris. ALL apps should go.
Praying that those guys that created the apps would find other things to occupy their time and bring revenue.
My offhand guess is that Apple is trying to slowly start filtering out stuff from the App Store that could help boost the argument “Yeah, over 100k apps but most of them are fart apps and porn.” If you go through the Android Marketplace you see tons of this stuff and it ends up being noise that gets in the way of finding those apps that for some are the entire reason for owning an iPhone.
I’m not a huge fan of censorship but I’d prefer people have to “opt-in” to seeing apps like this even show up in app store (and be locked down with Parental Controls) rather than have them filling out the Top 25 all the time.
meh
I go back and forth on this. One, I’m glad they took it off. Never would d/l or use them anyway. But it’s not like you can’t get the apps contents and more by going to the…*wait for it… safari browser.
On the other hand, this sets a precedent for Apple to yank anything they want with little to no reason (Which they already have done before). Who is to say they won’t yank all church related apps on a moments notice. (I know they probably won’t) It’s its closedness and secrecy that has always made me roll my eyes at apple.
I know apps are all the rage, and are just downright awesome, but if you’re looking at designing an iPhone app, maybe a second look and focus on a mobile site would be worth it in the long run.
This is an area of temptation for me. I am relieved that this has happened.
But I also agree with Robin Curry’s point that if it’s sex apps now, why not religious apps later?
Part of me wants to think that Apple has gotten the fact that their store is viewed by CHILDREN and that they are responsible. Then again- with Chris Burke’s mention that the Playboy app is still there- I don’t think the adjustment has been solely on moral grounds.
Apple is big. And giants rarely move for anything, let along moral opinion. This has the markings of political, but I too just can’t grasp it yet.
When it comes to Apple’s mysterious decisions, I turn into a conspiracy theorist. So here’s my best shot at Apple’s porn app removal policy:
(1) The iPad is aimed at moms and grandparents. Neither want to see boobs in the app store.
(2) In fact, they’re offended by that type of content, especially because the (natural) secondary market for the iPad is children who will use mommy’s iPad to watch cartoons and play games. What mom wants their 8 year old son looking at boobs in the app store (Christian or not)?
(3) The developers that make adult apps don’t add value to the app store. They’re the same people that create adult websites, which also provide no value to the world. If they’re not providing value, then they’re providing increased liability.
(4) This has nothing to do with Apple censoring based on moral judgement calls. This is about Apple honing the app store to ready it for an army of soccer moms and grandmas.
(5) This won’t extend to religious apps, at least not in America. But I definitely think you’ll start to see restrictions based on locale.
Biggest thing is that Apple is shifting their focus to the family with the iPad, just like Nintendo did with the Wii. And if they’re going to hit that market hard, they have to get rid of the obstacles to sale for moms with kids. And making a big hoopla about removing adult apps is definitely part of the plan.
Scott, it looks like you were pretty much on the mark .
http://gizmodo.com/5477864/why-apple-banned-sex-apps-we-were-getting-complaints-from-women
Ha! Well look at that. Thanks Jay.
[P.S. How have you been man? We need to catch up soon.]
This is strictly a business decision for Apple. The iPod touch in particular is becoming a gaming device for the young. Do you really want your child or teen surfing the app store for new games and coming across these apps? The sheer number of these apps were making it hard not to run into them. Apple made a business decision to cater to families and kids plain and simple. They had to have run the numbers and decided that the money they would lose with these apps on their store was greater than the money they would make off of them. They also had to consider the impact such apps was having on their brand. Their concern is not morality. The iPhone is still an open portal to porn through Safari. There concern is their bottom line.
Great point about the effect of adult apps on the Apple brand. GREAT point.
But I don’t buy the “porn is accessible via Safari” mantra saying that Apple is being hypocritical. The only hypocrisy (that I see) is still allowing Playboy and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit apps because they represent a more “established” brand and company. Malarky.
Word. The Apple brand is still about money. And established brands make money. Period.
I actually blogged about this when the apps first started appearing.
It was troubling to me because the issue of sexting and porn on smart phones.
I do not know why apple has decided to swing the complete opposite direction and change things, but I am not complaining seeing how in the top 10 apps on a lot of the categories there was a lot of skin and “wobble”