Apple Cleans Up App Store, Removes Naughty Apps

AppleThis is strange, very strange. Apple has removed all apps that contain, well, almost anything sexual. They seem to have changed their rules, once again, on what is allowed in the App Store. Developers are reporting info with the following standards:

1. No images of women in bikinis
2. No images of men in bikinis!
3. No skin
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!!
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content

Ok, so first of all, I can tell you that so far it seems to be true. Last week I just taught a class teaching parents how to use the parental control features of the iPhone and iPod touch to protect their kids against apps in the App Store. I was showing them that even in the top 25 free apps, adult apps would show up even without searching for terms. These apps are no longer there and they were there for quite a while. What’s also strange is that apps like the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and the Playboy apps are still in the store.

Apple originally banned these types of apps and then later allowed them. Now they are banning them again. Maybe they started to ban them at the beginning of the App Store days and then started getting sued and decided to allow them. Now, after getting legal things straightened out, they started banning again? Who knows…

Note: I’ve noticed that apps that have textual descriptions about sex positions are still in the store… Maybe it’s just a visual thing.

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Comments

  1. This is great! Are kids should not even see these thing on there ipod touch or iphone.

    • If they’d put it on their ipod/iphone, they’d probably know how to get it for free on the pc, not to mention Safari, which has no restrictions and can easily access harder material than allowed in the app store. I think apple is either super prude or scared of company image damage, because it would be a gigantic source of revenue if porn apps were allowed (would probably beat games after a while). But I really find kids not finding it a questionable reason for this.

    • I agree with you Brian, keep it “PG” for this type of stuff anyways. But also they should put ratings (or a better rating system on the games, some will get filled with gore, some already are!).

  2. iFoneGooner says

    Personally, never understood why people want porn on their fones anyway. HOWEVER, the bigger question is who has the right to censor adults (not the under 18’s) from putting what THEY want on their devices?

  3. Apple needs to create an adult category for these apps, censorship is not the answer.

    • I agree. I don’t want my younger sisters seeing that stuff, but censoring it would make more sense. Put those things in their own category and have it monitored by the parental control in the settings. While I don’t care for that crap on my iPhone…allowing violence and killing while shunning a “bikini pic” is pretty dumb.

    • I don’t have that stuff either, but I find Apple’s illusion that they must play the parental role disturbing. The last thing anyone needs is a computer company dictating to them what is acceptable and what isn’t.

  4. BRAVO APPLE!!!

    I had taken my 9-year old’s iPod away from him because of all the porno crap in the App Store. Boy will he be happy to get it back today when he comes home from school. If you want all the crap people — go to Google and their Andriod copy. You can get anything into their store, incudling viruses!

  5. not entirely true “SI Swimsuit 2010” is still on the front page of the featured section of the AppStore Spp but yes it looks like for the most part Apple has cleaned it up a bit!

  6. The Apple control is really annoying.
    They let developers develop Apps spending time and money and now they pull it out …

    Yeah – I wouldn’t want my son to see porn or the sexually oriented apps – but what’s the big deal for Apple to add some kind of age related lock to the app store so that parent can control which apps their kids can download? is this such a big deal?

    Of course not.

    Honestly speaking – my iPhone is unfortunately the best phone for me today but… I’m waiting for a worthy phone to come out from a competitor and I’ll dump the iPhone forever. Ive always hated microsoft but lately I’ve started thinking about the Apple control thing and it gets to me: no flash because it’s ‘buggy” – yeah…sure… they decide for me what I can put on my iPhone…. great… thanks Apple – I really need your opinion… they need to loosen up this iron grip on their developers and users – this is starting to resemble the chinese government censoring of the Internet.

  7. I think Apple’s censorship is taking it WAY TOO FAR. Create an adult section and move that stuff there. Removing alltogether is NOT the answer. ANY child can get far more porn on their iTouch or iPhone through the browser without a problem….

    I feel it’s rediculous

  8. It’s pretty frightening if a picture of a woman in a bikini can be deemed explicit.

  9. Hey Apple, LISTEN UP! Here’s a lot of good advise and alternatives to your censorship.

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