UPDATED: Apple Removes Sex-based Apps from the App Store
UPDATE 1: TiPb received a comment from Apple…
UPDATE 2: Reports now suggest Apple has removed 5000 sex-based apps and suggest new “rules” are in place…
Developer Chillifresh sent us a link to their blog post where they claim Apple is removing “all non-PG apps” (read: sex-based apps) from the App Store.
Here’s the email they received:
The App Store continues to evolve, and as such, we are constantly refining our guidelines. Your application, Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored), contains content that we had originally believed to be suitable for distribution. However, we have recently received numerous complaints from our customers about this type of content, and have changed our guidelines appropriately.
We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application.
First, we should point out Wobble has no sexual content in and of itself, it applies a “wobble” graphical distortion effects to any photo you choose to import — though the app name is certainly suggestive.
Second, it’s important to remember that users who’ve already downloaded the app can keep using it in its current state, although the developers can no longer provide updates (including updates to make it compatible with future iPhone OS releases).
Third, Apple’s already gotten negative press for rejecting apps and removing an entire range likely won’t sit well with the “let us decide for ourselves” crowd.
Fourth, sex-based apps have been spreading through several categories and there have been complaints from those who’d rather not see them side-by-side with non-sex-based apps.
So, is there a middle ground where Apple could create an “adult” category all its own, there for those who want the R-rated apps, easy for others to ignore? Or are they right to go the Blockbuster/Walmart family-friendly route, and leave the adult content to join the porn content as Web Apps?
Let us know what you think…
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@Adam Clark, in the way they are doing right now.
This is yet another reason I will never own an iPhone. Between AT&T’s hit and miss 3G coverage, Apple not allowing competing apps (3rd party Browsers, etc) and censoring the app store for something as simple as a picture modifier, I can’t see why anyone buys this junk.
Someone recently kicked off an idea that those cheep crappy indie-developed adult apps are bad for Apple as a brand. So, the question persists: is farting OK for Apple brand??
As a non-puritan non-American (we kicked the stupid puritans out of our country centuries ago and now you’re stuck with them), I am glad that I do not own an iPhone or anything made by Apple. As far as I am concerned, Apple are as bad as Microsoft – it’s just that no one has realised it yet.
I own an Android phone, and even if they did censor the marketplace at some point, we can still add applications by downloading them from a web site, sticking them on our SD cards, and installing them that way – so censorship of what we can and cannot have on our own damn phones is not an issue for us Android Users.
Saying all of the above, I would still agree that perhaps both the iPhone App Store and the Android Marketplace should have a clearly defined adult content section that is only accessible once you have provided proof of identity (and thus proving that you are over 18). I still don’t want my 11 year old niece being exposed to such stuff, but equally, I don’t want my freedom of choice as a fully legal consenting adult taken away from me by a corporation.
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