Slashdot Mirror
Apple Has a New Porn Problem
adeelarshad82 writes "Twitter's new iOS-only app, Vine, was prominently featured by Apple as an 'Editor's Pick' in its App Store the day it launched. However, given Apple's policies for adult content, they may have rushed the whole thing since this past Sunday, a number of news outlets ran stories covering the rise of easily-accessible pornography on the new video sharing app. As Joshua Topolsky explains, the situation draws even more attention to the vague and sometimes confusing rules of Apple's App Store guidelines, and more clearly showcases the sporadic and often unusual criteria the iPhone-maker uses to decide the fates of applications. So it will be interesting to see how Apple handles this given that they've never been shy about banning similarly racy apps in the past."
It's a feature!
To create a compelling story, duh!
Apple loves Twitter. It's 140-char limit and mentality (following celebrity and names rather than participating or creating) really encourages the kind of consumer thinking Apple depends on. I predict that they won't ban, they'll put pressure on Vine to remove adult content.
This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
Perhaps the author of TFA is unaware of the fact that iDevices all come with web browsers, which can show porn easily?
Twitter messages already introduced pr0n. 3===D ~~~~ ( @ Y @ )
The G
Now it's really an "open platform". :-)
Where's my ASCII rageface?
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Apple hasn't figured out how to get people to sign up for porn using their (known to spouse) iTunes accounts, which means they can't get their 30%. That's their porn problem.
After all, in much the same way their web browser allows access to the most depraved porn mankind has to offer.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
AssTime, the easy way to call ass-to-ass.
This is business as usual for Apple.
Possibly? Of course that's the reason. This has been the approach Apple has taken all along. Even Apple's own apps, such as Safari, can show adult content. So long as the rating is appropriate and the primary purpose isn't porn, it's fine.
The only surprising bit here is that Vine managed to get away with a 12+ rating. That could quite possibly change very quickly.
No, Apple have always been reticent to allow those kinds of apps on the App Store. Their policy hasn't changed.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
There are HTML5 APIs that Safari for iOS has taken a long time to implement, such as the ability to upload photos taken with the camera app (<input type="file"> was completely unsupported until iOS 6) or the ability to access the device's camera with the user's permission (getUserMedia, still unsupported).
You can watch porn on the Youtube app as well. Or, for that matter, in Safari.
Yes, Apple bans outright porn-o-matic apps and allows these. People seem to think that the App Store censors are like some kind of '60s sci-fi computer. "MUST BAN PORN...CAN'T BAN NATIVE APPS...NATIVE APPS CAN BE USED FOR PORN...ERROR! DOES NOT COMPUTE! *huge tape drives explode*
Maybe, worst case, they add Vine to the PG-13 category, or whatever they call the possible-mature-content section of the store.
Vine is a nice idea. But the implementation blows. Yeah, it was obviously "rushed through". It didn't even work until version 1.03 (and in an earlier version gave you access to other people's accounts). I've never seen non-Apple apps get so many versions through so quickly.
As for the app, it's like they asked a person of the street what they wanted, and the guy said, "I want to have this separate from Twitter, unlike twitpic, for some reason. I want to have all kinds of crap on my feed I'm not subscribed to. I want to have to *manually* add my tweeps into my vine account. Then I want to download several versions of the software before it even works."
This is Adam West Batman Reunion embarassing.
Twitter has introduced a video app which works a bit like short tweets. It lets you compose seven second video loops.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
More and more things become acceptable as the stock hovers around 450.
It is people who think porn is a problem which is the problem.
It's nice to see people who are utterly clueless about Apple users misunderstand other groups of people to the same extent.
If you're going to be clueless at least COMMIT, and by God you have done so.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Apple vs. Porn the showndown!
this gives new definition to "you're holding it wrong" ...
apple and other app stores need a adults only area.
At least android let's you side load with having to jailbreak.
I'm not sure whether this applies to other web browsers, but Safari at least has the ability to be locked down via parental controls.
However, I'm kind of looking forward to the day when the parental controls fail on some site, and an angry parent sues Apple for the content being displayed. If they have an anti-porn policy and parental controls in place to be "family friendly" (who under 18 can enter into a cell phone contract in the first place again?), then they have responsibility if "anything dirty" gets through.
It's only an Apple problem if you make it a problem.
Apple's app store (others probably do as well) has something better - a rating system that can be used to restrict that apps are available. Unfortunately some people don't know a) that it exists and b) how to use it.
won't load pornmd.com with specially formatted pages and videos for the iPhone. This is a stupid story...
If Vine poses a porn problem, that's nothing compared to what Mobile Safari is capable of. Do a search for Xhamster or Pornhub and ta-da! More porn than you could watch in a lifetime.
This is all part of Apple's plan to rescue their plunging stock prices!
My karma is bad. Don't get too close!!!
I love this report about the article:
It's got to be fake, right ?
You have got to be kidding, do you seriously think the pornography seekers had to wait until now to easily find porn? Des slashdot have to join in what looks like a blatent attempt to tarnish the Apple App Store by associating it with porn.
"Vine lets you explore video categories with a hashtag, and a few quick searches for #sex, #porn, and some others that we'd prefer not to write down here show a number of graphic videos that feature male genitalia and recordings of pornographic videos streaming on laptops. That's just scratching the surface "
AccountKiller
So twitter reinvented ytmnd, just like they reinvented texting?
Whoop dee fucking doo.
It is notable that you can surf porn like crazy with Apple's own tool: Safari.
Apple is not my mother. I already have a mother. She's already told me what she thinks, advised me, and set me loose within the world. Apple has no legitimate place in that hierarchy of trust and guidance. It belongs entirely to me.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
This problem shouldn't be taken for granted. I think the concerned individuals must really do something about it especially now that there is a law against pornographic viewing.
Are you a spam bot? Neither of those sentences make sense, whether taken alone or together.
This problem shouldn't be taken for granted.
How can Apple take a problem like this for granted. What does that mean? To "take for granted" means
"to expect something to be available all the time and forget that you are lucky to have it "
Is Apple expecting this issue to be available for all time? Is Apple lucky to have it?
I think the concerned individuals must really do something about it
Who? Who is the "concerned individuals"? The concerned party in this case is either Apple (to whom the issue is concerned), or the people who dislike pornography (those who are concerned about the issue). It's not clear who you're talking about.
especially now that there is a law against pornographic viewing.
What law? Are you talking about the United States, some other Western democracy, or some backwards Sharia Law theocracy? Do you realize that Apple is an American company party to American laws, and not to the aforementioned Sharia Law?
Luckily for me, 7 seconds is all the time I need. (Posting as AC for obvious reasons)
Access to files from a browser should always be controlled/limited. Desktop or mobile. It is a security liability .... ask Microsoft's IE team why.
First off Mobile Safari and all the other reskins(the other iOS browsers). A huge chunk of internet porn is perfect visible by just having a browser. And with the adoption of HTML5 in the next few years, I'd go as far as saying 99% of the porn will be visible by just having a web browser(even with a gimped javascript engine on iOS). If Apple was really serious about porn, they wouldn't have a browser in first place. Or maybe they'd use something like Opera mini, that goes through their server, gets censored, and then goes to the client device. The only porn that I don't think will be visible using a browser are a few Japanese 3D erogames(the visual novels can be done using HTML5. actually I'm surprised they haven't done so yet)
Then there is also offline viewing. iOS may not have file managers and it's codec selecting is limited, but its more than enough to view a video/pics uploaded uploaded through iTunes.
The apps. Apple policies are BS. DeviantArt is filled with artistic nudes, softcore porn and furry and it has multiple apps on itunes. Pixiv(japanese deviantart like site) is about 30% hardcore hentai porn and it has apps as well. Reddit and its japanese great grand father 2ch have several native clients for iOS, and they are filled with porn. Twitter already had links to porn and its integrated on iOS. It's not very hard to find youtube videos with some nudity or obscene language and there is an app for that. The only popular website with NSFW content that seems to be banned from the Appstore is 4chan.
Finally, the hypocrisy: their music and video stores have tons of potentially offensive content(not just nudity and sexual terms) that would be banned from the AppStore right off the bat. Never really understood the fuss about the apps.
Porn is good, except for faggot porn. Say no to faggotry!
Which is why seeing porn on Safari despite this claim (which is used to reject apps of others) is noteworthy.
It demonstrates that the claim "We won't let porn on our product so you can't sell your app on our store" is complete hogwash.
(capcha: boners, oddly enough)
Apple will have to remove that kinky "Camera" app first and foremost !
There is still a Playboy app available for iOS in the App Store.
We're receiving reports from sources on the ground in Cupertino that there is PORN on the INTERNET! Stay tuned to the Obvious News Network for in-depth analysis of what this new internet pornography phenomenon means for Apple and iOS app vendors, coming up at six o'clock.
0 1 - just my two bits
And that bug will be fixed by a future version.
No problem finding porn with it.
I don't mind if Apples censors everything to death, because that's exactly what I would expect from Apple. Maybe one day the legions of braindead fanboys will finally get tired of having their toes stepped upon, and Apple will finally go the way of Betamax and HD-DVD. DARPA may have made the Internet, but porn made it prolific.