Yes, it's hypocritical for Apple to ban even artistic nudity in the iOS app store while permitting softcore porn with zero artistic merit on HBO Now. But the App Store is something else altogether. Cconsider the cesspool it would become if such restrictions were removed. Consider how much capital and development might be diverted from other categories to focus instead on the promise of easy money from porn.
All that aside, given the limitless variety of free hardcore porn available on the internet, who actually gets off by watching poorly produced and badly acted long form soft porn movies on HBO?
Isn't it completely hypocrite to allow people to surf with Safari to porn sites, while forbidding app developers to include pornographic material.
As an end-user and an app developer I do mind the prude attitude of Apple, but what can I do about it?
That's not a fair comparison. That's like saying why restrict drugs and prostitution in shopping malls when they're available on the street. The internet is - and should remain - completely free and open. If something offends you you're under no obligation to watch it. But the App Store is an Apple-curated walled garden and they have every right to set standards for what is included or excluded from it.
You could certainly make a valid argument that its restrictions on nudity and sexual content are too strict, but I imagine they realize it would be an impossible task to attempt to moderate such content and decided to exclude it altogether.
It is actually that's how I got it for our iPads but I think this is moot as Apple cannot control such things, it is intrinsically different from a game app. Perhaps it needs an age verification and under 18 lock out for that channel added (maybe it has already, I didn't look). Maybe Apple could add an adult section on Apple TV with age verification.
As an aside, after a few days of the trial we are now pretty well convinced we won't bother keeping HBO Now past the trial. Game of Thrones doesn't do it for us (Lord of the Rings didn't either and it is equally convoluted) and I can't see needing HBO as well as Netflix. If anything it has highlighted for us what an amazing service Netflix is both in content and price.
Quote: This sounds like a beat-up. While I haven't seen the shows mentioned I highly doubt that they're really pornographic. Adult oriented maybe but not genuine porn. Genuine porn would be refused R rating and not available for broadcasting in this way.
Hasn't the author ever been to a sex shop or watched real porn on the Internet? I mean I know this is a website for nerds but come on!
There are lots of thing wrong with the porn industry. If there ever was a thing such as a fairtrade certificate for porn, at least it would make sure everyone involved were treated with respect, with a fair compensation, and according to regulations.
can we get those for the hospitality industry, too? or any industry?
Ive always thought Apple should allow porn and let the parents manage the devices of their kids accordingly.
Lawsuit!
Just as many parents chose not to take responsibility for their children's spending habits, many parents would choose not to take responsibility for their children's viewing habits.
The US government would sue Apple for not being more responsible about protecting children.
The larger hypocrisy is that our Victorian upbringing shuns nudity while glamorizing military and killing in general. I don't remember the last time two nude ladies from Mars ever killed anyone or drew a drop of blood but you can see gory TVs shows during primetime including worthless acts of violence such as MMA "fights" (at any other time they would be put in jail for their actions), violent action movies (sorry Fast and Furious), and current and futuristic military movies showing people get blown to bits. The latter are increasing without any stop in sight because people crave violence and are ashamed about seeing a nude body (at least publicly). The only way each of every one of you were brought to this world was through sex but my hope is that the vast majority of you will not leave this world through the violence portrayed on TV and movies.
For those embarrased by nudity, change changes. I'm embarrassed by Fox News so I change channels but I allow people to view content others feel violates their well being. And as for protecting children, give me a break. Most of the TV shows on during the normal time children area awake are filled with trash and things no child should be exposed to. The government can only regulate so much, parents needs to regulate how their children are raised.
Seems that way but not hypocrisy for NO PORN. Apple vs Google or others care less if children watch porn and turn into sex maniac, sex offender, rapist and than serial killer when grow up with early childhood mental wiring of what they watched during their childhood. When house(i.e. society's morale) is burning, concern will try to save much as it can. At least Apple is doing it's best than rest for not promoting PORN on internet. Give credit to Apple.
Isn't it completely hypocrite to allow people to surf with Safari to porn sites, while forbidding app developers to include pornographic material.
As an end-user and an app developer I do mind the prude attitude of Apple, but what can I do about it?
What can you do about it? Continue to be the hypocrite you are yourself. As an app developer your income trumps your ethics apparently. You could stop being an end user and develop only on Android. Hypocrisy abounds in this thread all around.
They should also create another category for web browsers. Right now web browsers (except for Safari--another exception) are forced in a category with MA17 games. Their ability to be used for mature content can easily be limited by a content filter. Accepting brands like HBO and Playboy should not be very controversial as long as the content rating system makes sense. Just because they add a mature category doesn't mean they need to open the floodgates to all apps. Maybe apps like HBO could dynamically adjust to honor the devices content rating settings. I've never understood the current content rating system.
With the much-hyped debut of HBO Now, Apple has once again chosen to look the other way as one if its major partners leverages iOS and the Apple TV to distribute adult content -- a courtesy the company still refuses to extend to other developers.
HBO Now, which Apple chief executive Tim Cook has called an "incredible service," brings first-run movies, popular shows like <em>Game of Thrones</em>, and an extensive catalog of on-demand video to Apple's platforms. But it also brings something else: hours and hours of softcore porn.
Choosing the "Late Night" content option --?hidden behind the "More" menu on the Apple TV --?doesn't fill the screen with clips from Bill Maher or John Oliver. Instead, viewers are greeted with such highbrow titles as <em>Stacked Racks From Mars</em>, <em>The Atomic Hotel Erotica</em>, and <em>Downtown Girls: Hookers of Honolulu</em>.
So what's different? This time around, there's no need to log in with cable credentials -- Apple is essentially selling porn through iTunes.
There's nothing wrong with porn, of course. The only thing wrong is Apple's double standard.
HBO gets away with it because Apple needs what HBO has. Could Apple have muscled a deal in without including pornographic content? Maybe, but they didn't.
<q>Apple should hold its biggest partners to the same standards as the smallest iOS developer.</q>
Apple has no problem flexing its might against smaller foes, though.
Even Playboy has to bend to the App Store's rules, removing all nudity from its apps and digital magazines.
As one iTunes user said in a one-star review of Playboy Thailand, "If all you want to see i [sic] bathing suit shots, this is the mag for you. Not the playboy [sic] I'm use [sic] to."
"Apps containing pornographic material, defined by Webster's Dictionary as "explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings", will be rejected."
The massive popularity of iOS shows that end users don't mind being subjugated by Apple's moral standards. Neither do developers, for the most part.
If only those morals were the same in every situation.
Seems that way but not hypocrisy for NO PORN. Apple vs Google or others care less if children watch porn and turn into sex maniac, sex offender, rapist and than serial killer when grow up with early childhood mental wiring of what they watched during their childhood. When house(i.e. society's morale) is burning, concern will try to save much as it can. At least Apple is doing it's best than rest for not promoting PORN on internet. Give credit to Apple.
I for one, certainly think Apple has the balance right and cannot be expected to cover such entities as third party TV and Movie content. A parental system is there on Apple TV I believe (isn't it?).
BTW regarding your rant there, I didn't come across your theory when I did a bachelors degree educational psychology a while back ... please post links to genuine evidence. I am not agreeing or disagreeing here, that is too complex, but you seem to indicate this is all fact.
There's nothing wrong with porn, of course. The only thing wrong is Apple's double standard.
There’s plenty wrong with porn. First and foremost is that the vast majority of porn denigrates women, turning them into sex objects whose sole purpose is to service men, depicting women being humiliated and subjected to all manner of degradation. The there’s the matter of young males watching porn and being taught that ejaculating in a female’s face while yanking her by her hair is the norm for a loving sexual relationship.
Oh yes, there’s a lot wrong with porn and I don’t find Apple’s policies to be a double standard at all.
Comments
Isn't it completely hypocrite to allow people to surf with Safari to porn sites, while forbidding app developers to include pornographic material.
As an end-user and an app developer I do mind the prude attitude of Apple, but what can I do about it?
Isn't it completely hypocrite to allow people to surf with Safari to porn sites, while forbidding app developers to include pornographic material.
As an end-user and an app developer I do mind the prude attitude of Apple, but what can I do about it?
That's not a fair comparison. That's like saying why restrict drugs and prostitution in shopping malls when they're available on the street. The internet is - and should remain - completely free and open. If something offends you you're under no obligation to watch it. But the App Store is an Apple-curated walled garden and they have every right to set standards for what is included or excluded from it.
You could certainly make a valid argument that its restrictions on nudity and sexual content are too strict, but I imagine they realize it would be an impossible task to attempt to moderate such content and decided to exclude it altogether.
It is actually that's how I got it for our iPads but I think this is moot as Apple cannot control such things, it is intrinsically different from a game app. Perhaps it needs an age verification and under 18 lock out for that channel added (maybe it has already, I didn't look). Maybe Apple could add an adult section on Apple TV with age verification.
As an aside, after a few days of the trial we are now pretty well convinced we won't bother keeping HBO Now past the trial. Game of Thrones doesn't do it for us (Lord of the Rings didn't either and it is equally convoluted) and I can't see needing HBO as well as Netflix. If anything it has highlighted for us what an amazing service Netflix is both in content and price.
I completely agree, HBO is the same as my "CdaBOOBY" app. I am so angry.
What's there not to like about incest, dragons, and frozen zombies?
and a whole lot of people don't.
This sounds like a beat-up. While I haven't seen the shows mentioned I highly doubt that they're really pornographic. Adult oriented maybe but not genuine porn. Genuine porn would be refused R rating and not available for broadcasting in this way.
Hasn't the author ever been to a sex shop or watched real porn on the Internet? I mean I know this is a website for nerds but come on!
Talk about click bait!
can we get those for the hospitality industry, too? or any industry?
Ive always thought Apple should allow porn and let the parents manage the devices of their kids accordingly.
Lawsuit!
Just as many parents chose not to take responsibility for their children's spending habits, many parents would choose not to take responsibility for their children's viewing habits.
The US government would sue Apple for not being more responsible about protecting children.
Simply far too much of that magic stuff and not nearly enough boobs!
The larger hypocrisy is that our Victorian upbringing shuns nudity while glamorizing military and killing in general. I don't remember the last time two nude ladies from Mars ever killed anyone or drew a drop of blood but you can see gory TVs shows during primetime including worthless acts of violence such as MMA "fights" (at any other time they would be put in jail for their actions), violent action movies (sorry Fast and Furious), and current and futuristic military movies showing people get blown to bits. The latter are increasing without any stop in sight because people crave violence and are ashamed about seeing a nude body (at least publicly). The only way each of every one of you were brought to this world was through sex but my hope is that the vast majority of you will not leave this world through the violence portrayed on TV and movies.
For those embarrased by nudity, change changes. I'm embarrassed by Fox News so I change channels but I allow people to view content others feel violates their well being. And as for protecting children, give me a break. Most of the TV shows on during the normal time children area awake are filled with trash and things no child should be exposed to. The government can only regulate so much, parents needs to regulate how their children are raised.
Yup, the mythical to boobs ratio is way off.
Ive always thought Apple should allow porn and let the parents manage the devices of their kids accordingly.
Allowing porn on the App Store would open up a can of worms that would extend far beyond the topic of parental control.
Seems that way but not hypocrisy for NO PORN. Apple vs Google or others care less if children watch porn and turn into sex maniac, sex offender, rapist and than serial killer when grow up with early childhood mental wiring of what they watched during their childhood. When house(i.e. society's morale) is burning, concern will try to save much as it can. At least Apple is doing it's best than rest for not promoting PORN on internet. Give credit to Apple.
Isn't it completely hypocrite to allow people to surf with Safari to porn sites, while forbidding app developers to include pornographic material.
As an end-user and an app developer I do mind the prude attitude of Apple, but what can I do about it?
What can you do about it? Continue to be the hypocrite you are yourself. As an app developer your income trumps your ethics apparently. You could stop being an end user and develop only on Android. Hypocrisy abounds in this thread all around.
I for one, certainly think Apple has the balance right and cannot be expected to cover such entities as third party TV and Movie content. A parental system is there on Apple TV I believe (isn't it?).
BTW regarding your rant there, I didn't come across your theory when I did a bachelors degree educational psychology a while back ... please post links to genuine evidence. I am not agreeing or disagreeing here, that is too complex, but you seem to indicate this is all fact.
There's nothing wrong with porn, of course. The only thing wrong is Apple's double standard.
There’s plenty wrong with porn. First and foremost is that the vast majority of porn denigrates women, turning them into sex objects whose sole purpose is to service men, depicting women being humiliated and subjected to all manner of degradation. The there’s the matter of young males watching porn and being taught that ejaculating in a female’s face while yanking her by her hair is the norm for a loving sexual relationship.
Oh yes, there’s a lot wrong with porn and I don’t find Apple’s policies to be a double standard at all.