Apple bans over 5,000 sexually themed iPhone apps

According to industry insiders, Apple’s move was prompted by its concerns that the growing volume of sexually-themed apps could harm its efforts to sell the iPad (which can also run iPhone apps) into the education market.

‘It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see,’ said Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller

However Apple’s move has already riled developers, upset digital rights advocates, and left the company in the uncomfortable position as a sort of moral censor.

One developer, Jon Atherton, who wrote an application called Wobble iBoobs, reported that he received an email from Apple, telling him that his app was being pulled off the App Store.

‘The App Store continues to evolve, and as such, we are constantly refining our guidelines,’ read the email. ‘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.’

Atherton’s app, which enables users to make parts of any photo wobble, may be puerile but it was hardly pornographic.

And Apple has not removed apps from Playboy and Victoria’s Secret nor apps from other major publishers whose titles feature scantily clad women, such as Sports Illustrated. Meanwhile companies selling items like swimsuits have found their apps have been removed.

Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller defended the inconsistencies of Apple’s new policy. Commenting on Apple’s decision to permit Sport Illustrated’s app to remain, despite the fact it has a swimsuit edition packed with pictures of scantily clad women, Schiller said: ‘The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format.’

Of course, anyone using an iPhone or iPad would still be able to access pornography using Safari (so long as the content was not Flash-based. And Apple sells downloads of movies which contain nudity through iTunes.