Much like any time when the H- word is thrown around, I think there's an angle and bias at play, but I think it's fair to say that Apple aren't particularly consistent here. As many have said, iTunes Store content has supported certifications and explicit ratings for as long as we can all remember, yet apps (which also have age ratings) have a particular proviso on adult content. And not necessarily highly pornographic content, even fairly soft glamour stuff that's less explicit than, as per the main example, Game Of Thrones.
I wouldn't call it hypocritical (have Apple ever said that people shouldn't buy porn or that they unequivocally won't resell porn? Not to my knowledge), but there does seem to be a discrepancy in the overall message from them as a content provider.
There are tons of Rated R shows on iTunes, have been for ages. i mean crap Da Vinci's Demons opens with a full frontal shot of a man's penis. Followed by full frontal everything. Black Sails has genitals left and right. Game of Thrones turns up there eventually.
There are tons of Rated R shows on iTunes, have been for ages. i mean crap Da Vinci's Demons opens with a full frontal shot of a man's penis. Followed by full frontal everything. Black Sails has genitals left and right. Game of Thrones turns up there eventually.
And so on and so on.
I'm halfway through the second season of Black Sails, and the most I've seen are female breasts.
Children of God, the author who states that there is "nothing wrong with porn, of course" is wrong. If the spirit of God is with you, it is certain that indulgence in pornography will drive the spirit out of your soul and you will become enslaved to sin and the author of sin, Satan. Listen to Jesus and despise porn.
Calling 50 shades a grey (the movie) porn is stretching it by a mile; even the book was kind of bland in prose and in passion compared to many fan-fic on the internet.
Though in a way, it is pretty close to female created porn. In female porn, powerful and respectful figures are put in a scenario with some average girl. The building to the eventual intercourse is a sensory, no holds barred, courtship and seduction that is prolonged and unrelenting... This part is more important than the actual final act (this is what distinguishes these things from male created porn). Since, the final part is actually not the most critical part of the "experience", 50 shades is kind of like a readers digest version of female porn ;-).
BTW, I'm middle aged mother of two;. but, I'm not a shy wallflower :-).
Tumblr is a porn app - if it's not, then I don't know what is. I know you can also get other "interesting information" but it seems to me that all my male students are using it to get porn and then they use Snapchat to show their desired interest how the porn is making them feel.
No it's not. It's a blog and you can post porn if you wish. A lot of people do but there's also tons of stuff on there that's not porn.
Much like any time when the H- word is thrown around, I think there's an angle and bias at play, but I think it's fair to say that Apple aren't particularly consistent here. As many have said, iTunes Store content has supported certifications and explicit ratings for as long as we can all remember, yet apps (which also have age ratings) have a particular proviso on adult content. And not necessarily highly pornographic content, even fairly soft glamour stuff that's less explicit than, as per the main example, Game Of Thrones.
I wouldn't call it hypocritical (have Apple ever said that people shouldn't buy porn or that they unequivocally won't resell porn? Not to my knowledge), but there does seem to be a discrepancy in the overall message from them as a content provider.
They are both rated 17+. The Playboy one is listed as:
"Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity
Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor
Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes"
The HBO one is listed as:
"Frequent/Intense Realistic Violence
Infrequent/Mild Simulated Gambling
Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes
Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor
Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity"
"18. Pornography
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
18.2 Apps that contain user generated content that is frequently pornographic (e.g. "Chat Roulette" Apps) will be rejected"
Why allow very explicit videos that presumably run nightly on HBO but block basic nudity from Playboy? The HBO videos are more explicit than the Playboy images.
Playboy has to get round it by using a mobile-optimized website but this requires a network connection. With an app they could give you offline use.
The word porn is typically used to mean hardcore porn but Playboy isn't hardcore porn though people would still think of it as porn and yet it's milder than Stacked Racks from Mars on HBO.
Playboy could air content in the HBO app but be refused to put the same content in their own app.
Apple can offer whatever content they want, Tim Cook is single, he probably watches porn at times so his opinion on it might differ from Steve Jobs but no mass-market company wants to be offering explicit content. They should just treat whatever content they approve of in the same way. If HBO's late night content is crossing that boundary (which it seems to be) then they can put in measures to restrict it by having it disabled by default the way 500px is made to have nude images disabled.
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Really? Maybe I should start watching that show. I always thought it was a second rate Lord of the Rings.
There's absolutely nothing second rate about Game of Thrones. It is not a 'if we do this all will be right in the world' type fairy tale. It's much more political in nature with people vying, jockeying, and scheming for position, and power. It's extremely well written, and well produced. IMO it's the best show made for TV ever, and if that's not enough to sway you to watch, there's hot women galore.
No, there is absolutely no problem with porn - most adults around the world enjoy it. Don't like it? Don't watch it. And keep your own holier-than-thou BULLSHIT to yourselves.
Look, I'm both an atheist and a very scientific minded person. So I don't believe that porn is immoral or against rules created by a fictitious entity. I also fully understand that human beings are part of the animal kingdom, and as such, have sexual urges designed to help keep our species going. So there is nothing unnatural or evil about wanting to see other human beings involved in sexual acts: it's in our very nature. Anyone who argues against porn along those lines is simply doing it because of their own personal hangups or because of conditioning from a religious and/or puritanical upbringing.
That said, I also understand the real world where the sex trade is a very lucrative business and, in many cases, is linked to some very scary organizations (I wouldn't be surprised if the money trail for some porn leads back to Isis). And, without proper legislation (and enforcement), is also the industry with the biggest potential for human exploitation. This is where I have a problem with it: how do I know that I'm not watching someone being forced or manipulated into having sex against their will? Or that the money I spent on it isn't helping to fund a terrorist organization? Without proper legislation behind it, there is no way to know.
Now, I'm sure there's plenty of porn produced without exploitation or ties to organized crime. The hard part is how does Apple separate that from the porn which is? If you allow apps to access any porn without limitations, it's nearly impossible (not to mention the potential of ending up with apps that provide access to child porn).
But I agree that Apple could probably loosen the restrictions a bit to allow porn from well-known, verified sources if they wanted to. It's probably just not a high priority for them (especially given the potential for lawsuits from parents whose children are accessing it).
HBO doesn't show "porn" with actual graphic sex acts on screen because there might still be a prosecutor in some backwoods county somewhere that would prosecute the local cable company for obscenity.
HBO doesn't show "porn" with actual graphic sex acts on screen because there might still be a prosecutor in some backwoods county somewhere that would prosecute the local cable company for obscenity.
The more important factor isn't why content like Stacked Racks on Mars is allowed, it's why isn't everything else that's less explicit than that not allowed.
If Stacked Racks on Mars is ok under the HBO app (which most people seem to be in agreement with) then images of the Playboy centrefolds is ok too under the Playboy app. If it's not, why not? Playboy is less explicit and they both have the same intent.
There's two options:
Playboy is porn so not allowed therefore
Stacked Racks on Mars is porn and not allowed
OR
Stacked Racks on Mars is not porn and allowed therefore
Playboy is not porn and allowed
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!
S.Metcal,
Generally I'd agree with you, except it is Apple themselves that have banned and/or required editing of things like Playboy under the porn clause due to simple nudity. I don't think anyone except the most puritan think of Playboy as porn, yet they can't sell anything on the app store with nudity. Some of the movies on HBO, and shows like Real Sex, are far more graphic and sexual in nature than the photoshopped glory that is Playboy fantasy. Sam's issue isn't porn or nudity per say, but Apple's inconsistent application of its own rules.
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!
Since you haven't seen any of it, you have no idea what you are talking about. HBO, Max, and Showtime on AppleTV all have "late night" content, and it is soft-core porn. They are not rated. It shows full nudity with sex, including oral sex on both men and women, without showing penetration or the man's genitalia. But the act is shown and that is considered soft-core porn. Hard core porn, which you are referring to of course shows everything.
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.[/quote]
Ugh, people are looking at this from the completely wrong angle.
The reason that you can't put "porn" on the App Store, is because there is no way to filter that away from the 8 year olds who want to play a game. Once you have an app like HBO Go, Netflix or similar, you have unfettered access to the content library, and Apple is not filtering it. If you are a "responsible parent" you lock down these apps to "Kids mode" before handing it to little Timmy/Tina to go watch cartoons.
The App store has links to the developers websites. So even if you can't install the "porn" app, you may still go to the developers website and see all the screenshots and trailers which may show more than the app store would allow.
While I think it's quite honestly embarassing that you can't put R-18 games on the App store, there's quite a bit of fraud associated with Adult games, and the app stores "DLC" or "in app purchases" would quickly succumb to the same problem that premium text messages and 1-900 numbers have... being that you can no longer access these services (Mobile phones do not permit calling 1-900 numbers) because they are subject to extremely high amounts of fraud.
One of the downsides if they opted to go the route of allowing softcore content is that people would make apps solely about it. A developer could make an app called Topless Girls and it would just be full of erotic images and they'd get inundated with these. I don't think that's where they want to go. So they should clarify in their rules the ratio of nude content allowed and that the nude content shouldn't be the focus of the app. People likely wouldn't subscribe to HBO to watch really low grade softcore porn but they would subscribe to the Playboy app solely to see Playboy centrefolds.
Apple was going to block the game Paper's Please because of nude graphics and then decided it was ok:
That's a case where the game isn't about the nudity. 500px wasn't about nudity either, it was a photography app but Apple blocked it until they hid the nude images.
HBO's Late Night tab isn't entirely sexual content, it has late night talk shows so to be consistent with how they treat other apps, they should just tell HBO to hide the sexual content by default. The difficulty with the Apple TV is not being able to easily authenticate things:
A thumbprint scanner on the remote, gesture input or voice recognition with a mic could detect that an adult is trying to watch adult content without having to put a password in. A simple touch surface could allow adults to setup a custom symbol that they input to unlock things and this surface would also make it easier to enter text as you could have a flick keyboard where you just scroll to the letter you want and let go. Think of it like the sidebar on the contacts page on iOS. One thumb swipe can go up and down the whole alphabet and they can have columns for numbers, letters, symbols that you swipe left/right to switch to and they'd have auto-complete to help. Siri on top of that would be helpful too.
Comments
Much like any time when the H- word is thrown around, I think there's an angle and bias at play, but I think it's fair to say that Apple aren't particularly consistent here. As many have said, iTunes Store content has supported certifications and explicit ratings for as long as we can all remember, yet apps (which also have age ratings) have a particular proviso on adult content. And not necessarily highly pornographic content, even fairly soft glamour stuff that's less explicit than, as per the main example, Game Of Thrones.
I wouldn't call it hypocritical (have Apple ever said that people shouldn't buy porn or that they unequivocally won't resell porn? Not to my knowledge), but there does seem to be a discrepancy in the overall message from them as a content provider.
And so on and so on.
I'm halfway through the second season of Black Sails, and the most I've seen are female breasts.
Children of God, the author who states that there is "nothing wrong with porn, of course" is wrong. If the spirit of God is with you, it is certain that indulgence in pornography will drive the spirit out of your soul and you will become enslaved to sin and the author of sin, Satan. Listen to Jesus and despise porn.
Calling 50 shades a grey (the movie) porn is stretching it by a mile; even the book was kind of bland in prose and in passion compared to many fan-fic on the internet.
Though in a way, it is pretty close to female created porn. In female porn, powerful and respectful figures are put in a scenario with some average girl. The building to the eventual intercourse is a sensory, no holds barred, courtship and seduction that is prolonged and unrelenting... This part is more important than the actual final act (this is what distinguishes these things from male created porn). Since, the final part is actually not the most critical part of the "experience", 50 shades is kind of like a readers digest version of female porn ;-).
BTW, I'm middle aged mother of two;. but, I'm not a shy wallflower :-).
Uh, then don't watch it. But don't tell other people what they should watch.
No it's not. It's a blog and you can post porn if you wish. A lot of people do but there's also tons of stuff on there that's not porn.
The apps for Playboy and HBO are here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hbo-now/id971265422?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/playboy-now/id930678202?mt=8
They are both rated 17+. The Playboy one is listed as:
"Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity
Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor
Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes"
The HBO one is listed as:
"Frequent/Intense Realistic Violence
Infrequent/Mild Simulated Gambling
Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes
Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor
Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity"
Apple's definition for porn is:
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#pornography
"18. Pornography
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
18.2 Apps that contain user generated content that is frequently pornographic (e.g. "Chat Roulette" Apps) will be rejected"
Why allow very explicit videos that presumably run nightly on HBO but block basic nudity from Playboy? The HBO videos are more explicit than the Playboy images.
Playboy has to get round it by using a mobile-optimized website but this requires a network connection. With an app they could give you offline use.
The word porn is typically used to mean hardcore porn but Playboy isn't hardcore porn though people would still think of it as porn and yet it's milder than Stacked Racks from Mars on HBO.
Playboy could air content in the HBO app but be refused to put the same content in their own app.
Apple can offer whatever content they want, Tim Cook is single, he probably watches porn at times so his opinion on it might differ from Steve Jobs but no mass-market company wants to be offering explicit content. They should just treat whatever content they approve of in the same way. If HBO's late night content is crossing that boundary (which it seems to be) then they can put in measures to restrict it by having it disabled by default the way 500px is made to have nude images disabled.
----------------------> www.netjob80.com
There's absolutely nothing second rate about Game of Thrones. It is not a 'if we do this all will be right in the world' type fairy tale. It's much more political in nature with people vying, jockeying, and scheming for position, and power. It's extremely well written, and well produced. IMO it's the best show made for TV ever, and if that's not enough to sway you to watch, there's hot women galore.
Always glad to see the puritanical views.
No, there is absolutely no problem with porn - most adults around the world enjoy it. Don't like it? Don't watch it. And keep your own holier-than-thou BULLSHIT to yourselves.
Look, I'm both an atheist and a very scientific minded person. So I don't believe that porn is immoral or against rules created by a fictitious entity. I also fully understand that human beings are part of the animal kingdom, and as such, have sexual urges designed to help keep our species going. So there is nothing unnatural or evil about wanting to see other human beings involved in sexual acts: it's in our very nature. Anyone who argues against porn along those lines is simply doing it because of their own personal hangups or because of conditioning from a religious and/or puritanical upbringing.
That said, I also understand the real world where the sex trade is a very lucrative business and, in many cases, is linked to some very scary organizations (I wouldn't be surprised if the money trail for some porn leads back to Isis). And, without proper legislation (and enforcement), is also the industry with the biggest potential for human exploitation. This is where I have a problem with it: how do I know that I'm not watching someone being forced or manipulated into having sex against their will? Or that the money I spent on it isn't helping to fund a terrorist organization? Without proper legislation behind it, there is no way to know.
Now, I'm sure there's plenty of porn produced without exploitation or ties to organized crime. The hard part is how does Apple separate that from the porn which is? If you allow apps to access any porn without limitations, it's nearly impossible (not to mention the potential of ending up with apps that provide access to child porn).
But I agree that Apple could probably loosen the restrictions a bit to allow porn from well-known, verified sources if they wanted to. It's probably just not a high priority for them (especially given the potential for lawsuits from parents whose children are accessing it).
HBO doesn't show "porn" with actual graphic sex acts on screen because there might still be a prosecutor in some backwoods county somewhere that would prosecute the local cable company for obscenity.
HBO late night is no where near "porn". It's pretty soft core. I've seen R movies that are just as sexy.
The more important factor isn't why content like Stacked Racks on Mars is allowed, it's why isn't everything else that's less explicit than that not allowed.
If Stacked Racks on Mars is ok under the HBO app (which most people seem to be in agreement with) then images of the Playboy centrefolds is ok too under the Playboy app. If it's not, why not? Playboy is less explicit and they both have the same intent.
There's two options:
Playboy is porn so not allowed therefore
Stacked Racks on Mars is porn and not allowed
OR
Stacked Racks on Mars is not porn and allowed therefore
Playboy is not porn and allowed
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!
S.Metcal,
Generally I'd agree with you, except it is Apple themselves that have banned and/or required editing of things like Playboy under the porn clause due to simple nudity. I don't think anyone except the most puritan think of Playboy as porn, yet they can't sell anything on the app store with nudity. Some of the movies on HBO, and shows like Real Sex, are far more graphic and sexual in nature than the photoshopped glory that is Playboy fantasy. Sam's issue isn't porn or nudity per say, but Apple's inconsistent application of its own rules.
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!
Since you haven't seen any of it, you have no idea what you are talking about. HBO, Max, and Showtime on AppleTV all have "late night" content, and it is soft-core porn. They are not rated. It shows full nudity with sex, including oral sex on both men and women, without showing penetration or the man's genitalia. But the act is shown and that is considered soft-core porn. Hard core porn, which you are referring to of course shows everything.
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.[/quote]
Ugh, people are looking at this from the completely wrong angle.
The reason that you can't put "porn" on the App Store, is because there is no way to filter that away from the 8 year olds who want to play a game. Once you have an app like HBO Go, Netflix or similar, you have unfettered access to the content library, and Apple is not filtering it. If you are a "responsible parent" you lock down these apps to "Kids mode" before handing it to little Timmy/Tina to go watch cartoons.
The App store has links to the developers websites. So even if you can't install the "porn" app, you may still go to the developers website and see all the screenshots and trailers which may show more than the app store would allow.
While I think it's quite honestly embarassing that you can't put R-18 games on the App store, there's quite a bit of fraud associated with Adult games, and the app stores "DLC" or "in app purchases" would quickly succumb to the same problem that premium text messages and 1-900 numbers have... being that you can no longer access these services (Mobile phones do not permit calling 1-900 numbers) because they are subject to extremely high amounts of fraud.
Apple was going to block the game Paper's Please because of nude graphics and then decided it was ok:
http://www.polygon.com/2014/12/12/7384191/papers-please-ios-nudity-patch
That's a case where the game isn't about the nudity. 500px wasn't about nudity either, it was a photography app but Apple blocked it until they hid the nude images.
HBO's Late Night tab isn't entirely sexual content, it has late night talk shows so to be consistent with how they treat other apps, they should just tell HBO to hide the sexual content by default. The difficulty with the Apple TV is not being able to easily authenticate things:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200107
A thumbprint scanner on the remote, gesture input or voice recognition with a mic could detect that an adult is trying to watch adult content without having to put a password in. A simple touch surface could allow adults to setup a custom symbol that they input to unlock things and this surface would also make it easier to enter text as you could have a flick keyboard where you just scroll to the letter you want and let go. Think of it like the sidebar on the contacts page on iOS. One thumb swipe can go up and down the whole alphabet and they can have columns for numbers, letters, symbols that you swipe left/right to switch to and they'd have auto-complete to help. Siri on top of that would be helpful too.