Porn on the iPhone?
Apple says it will hold the line on decency. But many say it’s just a matter of time before adult content finds its way onto the popular smartphones.
By Michael B. Farrell | Staff writer/ June 27, 2009 edition
San Francisco
Porn made its debut on the iPhone this week. While it was a limited showing as Apple quickly yanked the racy program from its App Store, it caused quite a stir in the tech world as bloggers were eager to speculate that Apple had opened the floodgates to adult content for its wildly popular smartphones.
But Apple appears to be holding the line on decency for now, although this brief appearance of the first application to feature nude photos raises questions about whether Apple will stick with its early pledge to not distribute X-rated content for its iPhone and iPod touch devices, which have combined sales of more than 40 million units.
On Thursday morning “The Hottest Girls” application showed up for sale via the iTunes App Store and then quickly vanished. At first, the application’s developer said it was no longer available due to its overwhelming popularity — he said it was “sold out.”
Apple didn’t quite see it that way. The company later said that the app had been removed because it doesn’t “distribute applications that contain inappropriate content, such as pornography.”
“The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content…. The application in no longer available on the App Store,” the company said in a statement to CNN.
While “Hottest Girls” appears to have been the first app to contain nudity, to be sure it’s not the first adult-themed application for sale on the App Store. In fact, the store is full of programs that feature scantly clad women and that come bearing warning labels that they aren’t appropriate for children under the age of 17.
When Apple released its latest version of the iPhone operating system earlier this month it came with parental controls. Many tech watchers thought this was an unstated green light for producers of adult content to begin developing pornography apps for the iPhone — or iPorn as some have dubbed it. Already pornographers have designed websites specifically for viewing on the iPhone’s browser.
“Why has Apple, a company which banned an e-book application from the same store because it could be used to download the “Kama Sutra,” suddenly started selling smut? Because the 3.0 iPhone software update now allows age restrictions for applications,” wrote Charlie Sorrel on Wired Magazine’s Gadget Lab blog.
Gadget Lab later clarified the story about the short-lived porn app, saying that the developer gave a “false explanation” about why it had been removed.
“It’s not surprising that Apple chose to deny the app, and it’s unlikely we’ll see a porn app again in the App Store — lest developers wish to be banned,” according to the magazine’s blog.
But, it also pointed out that there “are currently more than 50,000 apps in the App Store, according to Apple, and the role of gatekeeper will get more difficult as the App Store continues to expand. Hottest Girls is another example of a developer who tricked the gatekeeper — but only temporarily.”
Apple was recently in hot water over an application called “Baby Shaker” that found its way past the censors and onto the App Store. The company later apologized for approving the offensive app (it vets everything available on its App store) and said allowing “Baby Shaker” onto the store was a mistake.
But that mistake drew attention to the curious — and secretive — approval process that Apple uses to let applications onto the store. And the case over “Hottest Girls” has many developers scratching their heads because Apple’s own rating system apparently allows for nudity.
This is how TechCrunch sees it: “Is it possible that Apple approved some of the nudity but then the developer was trying to push something like hardcore pornography into the app? Maybe, but I haven’t heard any reports of that — just that it featured pictures of topless women. And from its statement, it would seem that Apple doesn’t want any nudity, period.”
While it’s still unknown exactly how “Hottest Girls” made its way onto the App Store, there is no doubt an appetite for porn on the iPhone. A group that tracks Internet search terms recently found that “iPhone porn” is typed into Google about 3,000 times daily.
“Did Apple do the right thing?” asks CNN’s ScitechBlog. “Is the fuss over this episode just silly? And, given how lucrative the pornography industry is, is it just a matter of time before nudie pics become available through the App Store?”
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Comments
2. Decentralize | 06.27.09
This story is being exaggerated by the media for hits and ad revenue. Pictures of nude women is not the same thing as pornography. There is nothing inherently objectionable in the naked form, and it is only once actual sex acts are depicted that it can reasonably be considered pornography. It is only due to arbitrary censorship in US media that such a strong stigma has developed against nudity, one which is absent in many developed cultures around the world. We’re going to have to get past our hang-ups surrounding nudity, especially in relation to stigmas against depiction of violence, if we want to be headed down any kind of balanced, socially positive cultural path. Nudity is not porn.
3. Scott M | 06.27.09
This coming from a company that distributes explicit lyrics on itunes. Way to draw the line.
4. Torrey Jones | 06.27.09
I’m an adult, over 30 years in age, how dare apple think of telling *ME* what is and is not appropriate for me to view?
You want to rate content for age appropriateness, fine, I can turn those features off as I’m a legal adult, but to outright tell me that I can’t see it because *THEY* think it inappropriate content violates my rights as an American to free speach.
5. Apple | 06.29.09
I am a company, over 20 years in age, how dare a consumer think of telling *ME* what is and is not appropriate for me to sale?
You want to view porn, fine, there are many options available for you, but to outright tell me that I must sell something that I don’t want to be associated with because *YOU* want to see smut violates my rights as a privately owned and ran business in America to free speech.
6. Branden Frederick | 06.29.09
It’s Apple’s device and Apple’s store, so it is their right, and their right alone, to do as they wish with it.
7. Patrick | 06.29.09
“I’m an adult, over 30 years in age, how dare apple think of telling *ME* what is and is not appropriate for me to view?”
They own the platform and they can choose what to allow on that platform. If they want to allow only programs about puppies then they can do that. Your rights as an American protect you from government interference with your speech and expression. As a non-government-owned company, it is Apple’s right to allow whatever they want to allow on their platform.
8. TAD B | 06.29.09
Good for Apple. Just like any store that exists, it has a right to choose what it wants to make available to the public. If Apple wants to hold the line, and I sincerely hope they do, it is, and will be, a good thing to realize making a hard moral decision could be beneficial! And unlike what Torrey said earlier, Apple’s decision to pull an app is a far cry from saying outright “…that I can’t see [porn]….” Anyone can type “porn” into search engine and get what they’re seeking. The only sad part of this story is its apparent mankind (and very wealthy ones who can afford iPhones) still aren’t awake to how awful, sad, degrading, and wrong pornography is.
9. Simplicio T. Soriao | 06.29.09
The freedom of expression knows no limits relative to how the message should be conveyed. The medium to express this freedom includes all means and methods of communication including iphones.
10. Patrick | 06.29.09
STS, In the USA you are free to express whatever message you wish, as long as that message is not meant to cause direct harm or slander.
Likewise, other private parties are free NOT to publish your message, if they so choose, for whatever reason.
And Tad, “pornography” (by which I’m guessing you mean ‘depictions of sex’) is as old as mankind. Were people ever “awake” to your view of it?
11. mr flow | 06.29.09
Iphone already has porn…all you have to do is go to the many websites that people have already proclaimed to as “iphone porn”. why would you download an app to see that when you could just go there and see videos…easy..
12. Vegas Kukichyo | 06.29.09
If Apple truly wishes to increase their market share, profit, and reputation within the developer community, they will loosen their restrictions on App Store content.
Apple recently implemented a potentially-effective parental control system within the iPhone OS and the App Store, which releases it of any legal liability. The responsibility and legal liability then falls to consumers and parents.
First of all, nudity has a place in consumer products on a regular basis and is not always sexually explicit or considered pornography. Apple should take advantage of their ratings/parental control systems, and open itself into the market. They should allow consumers access to what they may be interested in, while taking effective measures to protect those who want/need protection from the media in question.
However, I am positive that there won’t be any suicides due to a lack of native iPhone pronographic applications, and Apple has every right to market what it wants to and to block any content it considers offensive, which is OK. Morals are OK, although in this day and age, we find morals being left more and more to the consumer.
13. Steve | 07.19.09
No matter of Apple is going to approve porn applications or not they already exist and are available for all iPhone users. Since the iPhone has browser and quicktime player, you can find adult sites which offers mp4 videos like http://artmidavideos.com
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1. Jeff | 06.27.09
How can they hold the line of decency when the phone itself can access porn? If they are trying to protect children by denying certain apps but then stand by when the very phone they sell can just as easily view porn that is the height of foolishness and double standards.