Apple's 'anti-sexting' patent generating big buzz - Page 2

Thanks alot!! I have beer all over my keyboard now!!

To quote Frank Barone, "I don't know what the hell this is but I love it"

Parenting. There's an app for that.

Playing devil's advocate, I can see how a Communist China government would use this to restrict communications on a wide variety of un-scanctioned citizen discussions. I would also not be surprised to see the Obama administration attempting similar -- I mean, just read THIS!:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20...ag=topStories2

Report: Feds to push for Net encryption backdoors

"The Obama administration will seek a new federal law forcing Internet e-mail, instant-messaging, and other communication providers offering encryption to build in backdoors for law enforcement surveillance, The New York Times reported today."
[continued]

If the backdoors become so widespread and intrusive, we can all go back to using ham radios. No one monitors those anymore.

In the words of Steve Jobs "Not a big deal".

Seriously, kids are smart enough to get passed this completely. This is probably a bigger deal for admins than parents. A teen who owns an iPhone I bet 99% of the time has no parental controls set, as most parents are woefully unaware of how to set them.

You do realise though that your kid will find a way round all these restrictions, so all your doing is giving yourself a false sense of security.

When I was young my parents wouldn't let me have a mobile phone. Solution I just bought one and didn't tell them. If kids can't get around the stuff this could do, they'll just buy another phone and not tell you about it.

The other issue about mobile phones is that the kids tend to know more about how they work than the parents and the filter will have to be manually activated. Also, they can send emails or texts using a different app.

The problem here isn't with the phone software but the users. If kids are sending sexual messages to each other then the filters won't do anything to change their behaviour, just annoy them enough to convince the parents to buy them another, cheaper phone, which they will be more than happy with.

Apple needs to stop trying to control peoples lives. Immediately. I can't tell you how absolutely sick this patent makes me.

If you find this to be even somewhat ok, you need to check in to a clinic and have a doctor slap the s*** out of you for about an hour. Because you've been deluded into thinking this type of obsessive and disgusting control is ok. It's not.

I'm tired of this perfect excuse called parental controls. Yes they are useful for idiot parents that want Apple to raise their kids instead of themselves (after all that busy busy job you have is so much more important), but it becomes the perfect ploy for implementing horrific levels of control.

Read my words: Apple should NEVER have any control over what passes from one iPhone to another phone in any form, text, voice, or IMG.

If you disagree, you can move to Iran where people are treated similar as lower than dirt.

This is sick, thats what it is.

You don't need Apple to provide you with tools to be a parent. YOU, need to be the f****** tool!!

Don't you understand this? Its bizarre and sick to control your child through technology. Step up, be an ADULT, and teach your children how to behave, whats right and whats wrong, and why. Smart children will understand easily, and smart parents can easily get the message across. This is NOT hard.

But it IS a lot harder than flipping 20 toggles on your kids iPod and saying, "there, my kid is safe thanks to Steve Jobs," that I can promise you.

If your kid is old enough to have an Apple product, then they're old enough to think for themselves and make their own decisions. Of course, this only applies if you were a good parent ( not an idiot ) and taught them how to make such decisions. The type of person who wants more psycho control tools from Apple is not the type of parent I'm talking about.


IF YOU DO NOT TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO MAKE DECISIONS FOR THEMSELVES AND LEARN FROM THEM, THEY WILL NOT GROW UP.

That's a tough nut to crack for Apple!

I would think that the patent is about the particular implementation on a given interface - not the idea of filtering based on content - but how that filtering is achieved and the user interface for it.

As far as parents needing to be the tool - depending entirely on technology is a false sense of security. on the other hand having tools that can enforce limits or perhaps just make it harder for an unsuspecting child to stumble onto something that you find objectionable may be a good thing.

As for American's being prudes - get real - not saying that their aren't prudes among us - and some rather vocal ones - but that does not mean every one of the 300 million or so of us agree. While we do value freedom of speech perhaps what is equally cherished is the freedom to remain silent. On the other hand I do wonder if some of the repressive attitudes towards sexuality in this country are not in some small way responsible for some of the sex related crimes that occur and that if we were a bit more open and open minded about it if fewer people would be driven to criminality. Or perhaps those folks would still have the same problem regardless of the environment.

I read somewhere recently that a wise person has something to say and a foolish person has to say something. or perhaps closer to my point - don't argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with their experience. Replace idiot with anyone who has deeply held opinions or beliefs and it works just as well - regardless of whether those opinions and beliefs are based on anything rational or logical or factual etc.

Or perhaps more to the point - no technology is good or bad - it all depends on how you use it. Even growing anthrax in a lab is not an inherently bad thing - provided it is done for reasons such as curing disease - but is not a good thing if it is done to spread disease - the anthrax is the same either way - the outcome depends on how we choose to use it.

This sounds awesome, anything to get parents to actually pay attention to what their kids do online or on their phones.

Huh? How is this about apple controlling anything? Where in this patent does it say anything about any of this information being sent to apple servers?

This is about handing more control over to parents. You don't have to turn any of these features on. Technology is only a tool, it's how you USE it that makes things good or bad. If you are a bad parent, you will still be a bad parent, regardless of what fancy texting blocklist you have set up. Apple can't make you a good parent, but apple CAN give good parent's real tools for helping them stay on top of their kid's lives. That I don't have a problem with, and I don't see why you do either.

Only an idiot parent would think they can stop ANYTHING their kid does, short of locking them in their room for the rest of their lives with no technology. If you need that kind of control over your kid, you should seriously seek help.

It doesn't matter that kids will find away around the restrictions. If you're a software developer, do you not put any anti-piracy controls in your app, since "everyone will pirate it anyway"? No. Because the restrictions will stop most people. And the block tools will stop most kids, or at least make them think twice about what they are doing. Which is the point.

Good parenting is checks and balances. Right now it's parents who are at the disadvantage, since they are (A) technologically impaired and (B) Up against kids who grew up with the stuff. Apple is trying to tip the balance back the other way.

How many of these angry responses are from teens who are resistant, mainly because they've found out the space where they thought they owned the world is suddenly about to get a wee bit smaller?

Incredibly huge points that you miss or ignore:

1. Apple develops (and patents!) the control mechanism. They own it, and can use it however they wish. Please point me to the blood promise from Steve Jobs that this will never, ever, morph into something else, or be used in a different way? Take away the Parent Controls meme, and what are you left with? Refer to how often Apple treats it's entire user base like children.

2. Calling it Parental Controls, with the Apple seal of approval, does not make it an appropriate parenting tool, at all. Blocking children from the world is the least successful way (in my opinion, down right criminal) of teaching them to think and act for themselves. My children are not my prisoners, and they will not be subjected to my will 24/7. They need to learn, make mistakes, and learn some more.

If youre not a parent then I understand you having no idea what you're talking about, but you can definitely comprehend this: the only thing children learn when treated as guilty-til-proven-innocent, is that their parents are nuts, and that other parents who dont act that way, are normal.

Be normal, teach your children, and trust them to make the right choices. If they don't they will learn a tough lesson, and be better for it.

You might then say, "how does that help them when schools treat sexting as worse than drug related crimes?"

Schools' handling of this matter today is absurdly inappropriate. Something needs to be done about this as well. Problems are everywhere, parents need to be informed.

Would you like to elaborate on that claim?

It would seem to me if that were the case, you would be absent from this forum. Unless, of course, you are dumber than you profess to be.

I think they're trying this out on PING. I was writing the word "Sexy" in my description, refering to a radio program called "Sexy". This showed up on PING as "S**y". I didn't think much of it. Actually thought it was kind of cute.

Apple patents SMS censorship. Apparently Canon does as well with their photo copier; this copier won't copy if there are certain words in the document:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20019457-1.html