HBO Now on Apple TV highlights hypocrisy in Apple's 'no porn' rules
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 Game of Thrones, 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 Stacked Racks From Mars, The Atomic Hotel Erotica, and Downtown Girls: Hookers of Honolulu.
This certainly isn't the first time porn has infiltrated an Apple device in this way. HBO Go and Cinemax's Max Go have long served adult content to cable subscribers on iOS, sparking the occasional kerfuffle of their own.
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.
Apple has no problem flexing its might against smaller foes, though.
Vine was stripped of a prime placement in the App Store because users could search for #porn. Popular photosharing app 500px was pulled for the same reason, prompting Tumblr to add a warning to its own app.
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."
Apple's own App Store review guidelines are clear. Section 18.1:
"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.
HBO Now, which Apple chief executive Tim Cook has called an "incredible service," brings first-run movies, popular shows like Game of Thrones, 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 Stacked Racks From Mars, The Atomic Hotel Erotica, and Downtown Girls: Hookers of Honolulu.
This certainly isn't the first time porn has infiltrated an Apple device in this way. HBO Go and Cinemax's Max Go have long served adult content to cable subscribers on iOS, sparking the occasional kerfuffle of their own.
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.
Apple should hold its biggest partners to the same standards as the smallest iOS developer.
Apple has no problem flexing its might against smaller foes, though.
Vine was stripped of a prime placement in the App Store because users could search for #porn. Popular photosharing app 500px was pulled for the same reason, prompting Tumblr to add a warning to its own app.
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."
Apple's own App Store review guidelines are clear. Section 18.1:
"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.
Comments
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!
Oh No Oh No, we have a dilemma. What do we do now?
How about you take your hypocrisy concerns and shove them?
Uh, a whole [I]lot[/I] of people disagree with that opinion there...
I'm glad for Apple's smut controls, personally.
Spot on.
+1
Wasn't it possible to purchase HBO shows through iTunes anyway? Or movies with graphic sex scenes at the very least?
This is the point I stopped taking this article seriously.
What a silly and childish article. It's literally impossible for Apple to hold the EXACT standard and stance in ALL contexts, and throughout ALL their services. That does not make anyone a hypocrite. It means they are human beings who are attempting to maintain some decency and age-appropriateness for the software they sell through their own digital stores. And no, movies and video subscriptions are not identical to apps in this regard, no should they be. So whats the solution? Open the floodgates to porn, or bar absolutely everything, including popular shows like Game of Thrones? Both those moves would be utterly moronic, but I guess they'd be "consistent".. or something.
You want porn? Open safari on your iPhone/iPad. You have access to an infinite pool of porn, and more free, streaming video that will last you a million lifetimes. But no, that's not enough, you also demand it in your apps. Why? Why the **** should Apple be forced to distribute it through their digital store? It's their store and their rules. Seeing as how it's used by hundreds of millions of people, including millions of young kids, I don't see how you can't comprehend that they'd prefer to err on the side of caution, and look at the big picture- not just self-righteous porn addicts like you that have no subtlety in understanding the complexity of the situation.
PS- None of the shit you described is "porn" and iTunes has been selling movies with nudity for more than a decade.
I think it's because historically computer games have been considered for children, so they have been more restricted than movies and books. But it's more acceptable for adults to game these days.
For starters: HBO isn't the first thing you could buy on iTunes that had boobs and buts on it. There's this thing called movies, perhaps you should check those out on the iTunes Store. PLENTY of R-rated material and even full frontal there, and has been for years. Apps that use or show nudes for anatomy, human sexuality courses, artistic masterpieces. Tons of those as well.
Second: nudity %u2260 porn. Simulated sex %u2260 porn. Boobs and butts %u2260 porn. Erotica %u2260 porn. The shows you refer to on HBO are, simply, not porn. Porn is actual sex. Porn is close-ups on aroused genitalia. Porn is X-rated. None of this is present in anything this article makes reference to.
Get some life experience, for heaven's sake, before you try to "titillate" readers by pretending there is porn on the iTunes Store. There isn't.
2) Downtown Girls is a documentary about transexual prostitutes, not pornography.
3) You can buy Game of Thrones and several other titles from the iTunes Store that are much, much more pornographic than the other soft core example you gave. That's direct hosting, not offering a pass through service like HBO Now.
4) HBO Go has been available in the App Store for two years now. How is that any different than this new streaming version?
You clearly have no idea what you're talking about, which basically negates your entire article. Well done.
And easily offended adults...