New iPhone App Store rules revealed
And there was me thinking Apple was a forward-thinking, progressive kind of company. I was wrong. In fact, Apple is as puritanical as is possible without boarding a ship and moving to the Colonies.
Apple started deleting apps of a sexy nature from its App Store a couple of days ago, with no prior warning, and no real explanation of why. More than 5,000 are now thought to have been removed, and an unofficial list of the new rules for App Store apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and forthcoming iPad has been revealed. And they’re harsh, to say the least.
According to Jon Atherton, developer of the Wobble app, one of the first to fall under the new set of rules, the new list of App Store rules is:
1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
3. No skin (He seriously said this. I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry.)
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs. (Yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in this pic)
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble “overtly sexual!)
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content. (Not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)
It’s possible that these will change as Apple’s new policy on nudity and sex in apps evolves, but it’s clear that a huge cleanup is under way. And it’s not only preventing healthy young men from seeking gratification via their iPhones, it’s also affecting the ability of iPhone app developers to make any money. So everyone loses.
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February 21st, 2010
So porn mongers and freaks go to an Android device. Big deal. Just cut TechCrunch is upset doesn’t mean the rest of the world needs be. Can’t you find ANYTHING original about which to write?
February 23rd, 2010
Is Apple applying these same rules to the video content they sell? Because I’m hard pressed to come up with many shows from, say, 1970 or later that don’t feature something that violates at least one of those rules.