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Apple bans sexy apps to appease women and parents, upsets developers

Apple has been known for its stringent defence of all that is pure and wholesome when it comes to the App Store. The adult entertainment industry has riled against it in the past, moving to more open pastures and the welcoming arms of the less-prudish Android. It hasn’t stopped a fair few enterprising app developers try and succeed to get their less savoury apps on to the iPhone though – boob wobbling, scantily clad ladies cleaning your screen and people in bikinis were available for a time, but now Apple has cracked down on vaguely explicit apps in a huge App Store cleanup. App Shopper reports that over 5,000 apps have been removed to date – 3% of the App Store’s total.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of product marketing, has commented that the clean-up was put into action because “we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable” (ugh, feminists) and “parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see” (ugh, kids).

But it looks like there are some degrading and objectionable apps that Apple finds acceptable – like those from Sports Illustrated, Play Boy and FHM which are known for their widespread use of scantily clad ladies. So what’s the difference? “The difference is [Sports Illustrated] is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” according to Schiller.

But this is more than just a letdown for iPhone owning porn-fans; it’s seriously bad news for those app developers who, until recently, were making a fair living from sexy apps. With little to no warning, the developers responsible for those 5,000 newly-banned apps face a serious drop in income. Fred Clarke, who runs a software company called On the Go Girls, points out “For developers, how do you know you aren’t going to invest thousands into a business only to find out one day you’ve been cut off?”

It seems like pretty poor form to us. While we’re all for women’s rights and protecting children from smut for as long as possible, it seems a little short-sighted to treat app developers so unfairly. Still, there’s always the internet for all your naked lady needs. And if that fails you, burkha babes.

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