Apple's 'overtly sexual' iPhone crackdown purges 5,000 apps

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Following last week's revelation that Apple had reversed its policy on sexual content in the iPhone App Store, a new report claims more than 5,000 inappropriate applications have been removed from the download destination.



Developer ChilliFresh, creator of the "Wobble iBoobs" application removed from the App Store last week due to "numerous complaints" from users, claimed that a discussion with Apple revealed the company removed more than 5,000 offending applications from the App Store.



That number was supported by tracking from AppShopper.com, which found that more that nearly 4,000 applications were removed last Friday, Feb. 18. While the level of removals is typically about 100 per day, the total remained uncharacteristically high over the weekend. The total number of removed applications is said to have amounted to roughly 3 percent of the entire App Store.



The developer, ChilliFresh, claimed that an Apple representative said images of both women and men in bikinis are inappropriate, as are words that have a sexual connotation. Apple allegedly is not allowing applications that can be "sexually arousing," or that imply sexual content.



The developer has expressed disappointment with Apple, as they claim "Wobble" does not include any offending images when installed. Instead, the application allows users to select their own pictures and add "jiggle points" to photos. The application has been downloaded more than 970,000 times.



The application also was not modified in over a half year before Apple allegedly changed its policies and removed it and other applications found to have "overtly sexual content." And though it was claimed more than 5,000 applications have been removed, other adult oriented content, such as the official 99 cent Playboy app, remains for sale.



Another application, "Adult Sex Life," features a woman in a bikini as its icon, but offers informational tips and is portrayed as an "introductory guide to sex." Rated for ages 17 and up, the $2.99 application includes mature themes, profanity and "frequent/intense sexual content or nudity."



With iPhone OS 3.0, Apple added an age rating system for applications. This not only allowed parents to set appropriate application access for their families, but also opened up the potential for developers to release applications with more adult-oriented content.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 194
    Oh Good Gracious!

    How did they ever make it though Walt Jobs' goon squad in the first place?
  • Reply 2 of 194
    I for one am glad to see it. There are some that are always pushing the limits which forces others to make more rules. Then they, the people responsible, never end up taking the heat for what they have done. Why don't we blame the people that really should be blamed for these changes?
  • Reply 3 of 194
    kiweekiwee Posts: 102member
    3% of total apps adult-related huh.. The internet as a whole i like 1%.

    After doing my own research, 1% is plenty.
  • Reply 4 of 194
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rfrmac View Post


    I for one am glad to see it. There are some that are always pushing the limits which forces others to make more rules. Then they, the people responsible, never end up taking the heat for what they have done. Why don't we blame the people that really should be blamed for these changes?



    Adam and Eve?
  • Reply 5 of 194
    It's a very simple matter to transfer these "overtly sexual" apps to a more mature section of the App Store and wall them off with adult access.



    This is something Apple should have done in the first place, now they appear like censorship nazi's and denying people's right to access to adult themed material.



    Supposedly the human male thinks about sex a average of 6 times a day and is even willing to pay for sex. Adult themed material is a safe avenue to vent, rather than being sexual harassing to actual people or engaging in risky conduct.



    Apple is trying to make the App Store pristine for a reason, the iPad and selling them to schools. It's perfectly understandable why nobody in their right mind wants any reference anything sexual in that environment. It's a shame that that small market is dictating what everyone else has to abide by when Apple could create walled sections by default in the App Store instead and cater to everyone.



    What's going to happen when parent's complain about the religious Apps programming their children into being cultists?





    Apple has their right to do what they want with their App Store, including running it into the ground.



    But they should learn from others who gone on the same path and tried censorship and found out it's a slippery slope. They should have walled sections as default and let people decide which "backroom content" they want to go into.







    At least Steve didn't put a camera in the iPad yet, so the child predators in the schools can't use it to spy on the students in their bedrooms...



    MacBooks used to spy
  • Reply 6 of 194
    I think more and more about jailbreaking my gear from Apple. It is just getting unreasonable and focusd only on one market and culture demands - the USA.
  • Reply 7 of 194
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member
    This is so totally wrong. It's such a horrific mis-step from Apple and so terribly immoral in and of itself. This will make jail-breaking popular again.



    Even if the apps were indeed pornographic it would be wrong, but none of these apps show anything more than is on the cover of hundreds of popular magazines sold in drug stores for the last 40 years or so (and I'm not talking porn magazines.) The content being banned for being "overtly sexual" is tamer than Maxim magazine or Sports Illustrated or Vogue.



    They will eventually reverse themselves on this for that reason and look all the more stupid when they do.
  • Reply 8 of 194
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


    This is so totally wrong. It's such a horrific mis-step from Apple and so terribly immoral in and of itself. This will make jail-breaking popular again.



    Even if the apps were indeed pornographic it would be wrong, but none of these apps show anything more than is on the cover of hundreds of popular magazines sold in drug stores for the last 40 years or so (and I'm not talking porn magazines.) The content being banned for being "overtly sexual" is tamer than Maxim magazine or Sports Illustrated or Vogue.



    They will eventually reverse themselves on this for that reason and look all the more stupid when they do.



    Really? So if someone owns a small grocery store and one day decides to stop selling, Playboy, Penthouse, hell Hightimes and Biker mags because the locals complain about them, does that make him wrong as well? It's the exact same thing.
  • Reply 9 of 194
    One of the reasons I admire Apple is that it is not afraid to set and enforce its own rules and guidelines. It's analogous to an individual with the integrity and the courage to set his own course in life and to follow it. Just as an individual should be afforded the liberty to determine his own legal course in life, so should a corporate entity like Apple be able to determine its own legal course.



    Policy is necessary in order for there to be direction and agreement amongst a group like Apple. Though we outside Apple may wonder at times just what that direction is, it's not for us to determine, other than to express our opinions of it via our purchase or lack thereof of its products.
  • Reply 10 of 194
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


    This is so totally wrong. It's such a horrific mis-step from Apple and so terribly immoral in and of itself. This will make jail-breaking popular again.



    Even if the apps were indeed pornographic it would be wrong, but none of these apps show anything more than is on the cover of hundreds of popular magazines sold in drug stores for the last 40 years or so (and I'm not talking porn magazines.) The content being banned for being "overtly sexual" is tamer than Maxim magazine or Sports Illustrated or Vogue.



    They will eventually reverse themselves on this for that reason and look all the more stupid when they do.



    No, you're totally wrong in condemning Apple for setting its own course as a free enterprise.
  • Reply 11 of 194
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,258member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Woohoo! View Post


    It's a very simple matter to transfer these "overtly sexual" apps to a more mature section of the App Store and wall them off with adult access.



    It's also a simple matter to make a porn web-app that has no need for app store approval. Porn isn't exactly CPU-intensive.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Woohoo! View Post


    Apple is trying to make the App Store pristine for a reason, the iPad and selling them to schools. It's a shame that small market is dictating what everyone else has to abide by when Apple could create walled sections by default in the App Store instead and cater to everyone.



    I suspect this is the primary motivation. Apple wants to sell the iPad to schools in large numbers and they want to make sure that it's as "safe" for schools as possible. Your point about the lack of camera is also an excellent one -- the omission could very well be due to a desire to make the device more appealing to schools.
  • Reply 12 of 194
    boredumbboredumb Posts: 1,418member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AdamIIGS View Post


    Really? So if someone owns a small grocery store and one day decides to stop selling, Playboy, Penthouse, hell Hightimes and Biker mags because the locals complain about them, does that make him wrong as well? It's the exact same thing.



    Yes, it would be wrong as well. Why is it always correct to pander to the repressive opinion, but wrong to pander to the permissive side?
  • Reply 13 of 194
    ifailifail Posts: 463member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AdamIIGS View Post


    Really? So if someone owns a small grocery store and one day decides to stop selling, Playboy, Penthouse, hell Hightimes and Biker mags because the locals complain about them, does that make him wrong as well? It's the exact same thing.



    Except that if I was that desperate for it the next logical step would be to go to another store that sold that content, but there is no alternate store on the iPhone unless you jailbreak, and god damn does Apple make it look more attractive everyday they do something like this.
  • Reply 14 of 194
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by boredumb View Post


    Yes, it would be wrong as well. Why is it always correct to pander to the repressive opinion, but wrong to pander to the permissive side?



    *roll eyes* lol
  • Reply 15 of 194
    1. Apple has decided to take the standard, moronic American position that a pair of jiggling breasts is unacceptable, but explicit bloody violence and playing with guns is totally okay. See also American television, the American film ratings board, and the fact that gun magazines are fine on the bottom shelf, but nudie magazines are kept behind the counter.



    2. The app store contains maybe 150 useful applications, 200 games which could be enjoyed by non-imbeciles, and the rest is basically a pile of steaming turd. The same could also be said about television.



    Why doesn't Apple just categorize apps as "Useful" and "Pile of Steaming Turd" when they initially screen each app, and categorize accordingly? I would love to be able to click a checkbox and never see another fart machine, nudie puzzle, low quality game, 2-cent knock-off of a much better app with slightly different spelling, etc, but that shouldn't stop the average moron with no taste from wasting his or her money. I also think it's contemptible that Stevie is going along with (believing in?) the whole "censor nipples, but promote shooting people" mindset which has mainly been created in the US by Christian lobbyists and arms industry lobbyists.
  • Reply 16 of 194
    First no Flash Porn on the Pad and now this!

    There's no stopping Uncle Steve and his moral apples. Whatever happened to an open and free internet?
  • Reply 17 of 194
    mknoppmknopp Posts: 257member
    I wouldn't have as much of a problem with this if they weren't so hypocritical about it. They remove about 5000 apps because they are "adult". However, they still leave up the Playboy app?



    Are they going to apply those "sexual connotations" to their music and movies? Are they going to remove all R rated movies and television shows from HBO and Showtime from their video stores? Are they going to remove all music with explicit lyrics or sexual connotation from their music store? How about when the iBookstore opens up? Are they going to ban all books that have any sexually explicit or adult themes? (This one they have already shown their increased hypocrisy on since they allowed books by Stephen King onto the App Store with adult themes, but banned books by lesser known writers for lesser adult themes.)



    Oh, and by the way, the bible has sexually connotative materials, so why don't we all complain to Apple about having that immoral material accessible to our children. If they want to change the game in the middle that is their right, but I think that they should then be forced to open up their hardware to other sources for acquiring apps, or refund people's money who are now not able to obtain programs that they could when they bought their hardware.



    The difference between this and any other business is that Apple doesn't allow for other alternatives than their store. If a person had a supported (or at least not disallowed) way of installing apps from other locations then who cares, but as long as the only way to place apps on your hardware is through the App Store then Apple needs to focus more on parental control and filtering than banning potentially offensive materials. (And don't mention jailbreaking as that is not only not supported but is actively persecuted by Apple. A jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch cannot readily be updated to take advantage of the latest security features, and thus is not a real alternative.)
  • Reply 18 of 194
    drdbdrdb Posts: 99member
    surely this should only need to be done on the American store, I can't imagine German or French people complaining about this kind of thing.
  • Reply 19 of 194
    The best part of iPhone porn is that it's easier to clean up instead of a full size computer.
  • Reply 20 of 194
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by boredumb View Post


    Yes, it would be wrong as well. Why is it always correct to pander to the repressive opinion, but wrong to pander to the permissive side?



    It is correct for the company that is responsible for the product to make their own decisions.



    If I'm a store owner, I should be able to choose whether to carry Playboy or not - regardless of whether 0.1% or 99.9% of the population is against it. It's the store owner's choice.



    Similarly, it's Apple's choice what to allow in the App Store. You may not like it, but you're free to make your own phone with your own Porn Store if you wish. Personally, I would have preferred for Apple to use the Adult rating system more effectively instead, but if eliminating porn from the iPhone meets Apple's objectives better, that's their choice.
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