Phil Schiller Explains App Store Boobs Ban

Leander Kahney ()

Phil Schiller Explains App Store Boobs Ban

If this is what Apple considers 'overtly sexual' content, we fear for civilisation itself - and the entire company needs to get out more.

Complaints from women are behind Apple’s recent purge of sex-themed apps, Phil Schiller told the New York Times.

Philip W. Schiller, head of worldwide product marketing at Apple, said in an interview that over the last few weeks a small number of developers had been submitting “an increasing number of apps containing very objectionable content.”

“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,” Mr. Schiller said.

As noted here on CultofMac.com, Apple has been inconsistent about which objectional apps are removed. A beachwear retailer’s app is gone, but Sports Illustrated‘s Swimsuit edition is front and center of the iTunes online store.

Some developers have had their entire catalogs removed from the App Store. The NYT mentions one who had 50 apps killed. “It’s very hard to go from making a good living to zero,” the developer said.

Schiler said, basically, such develepers are SOL: “We obviously care about developers, but in the end have to put the needs of the kids and parents first,” he said.

DON'T MISS
Scottish school can’t deploy iPod Touches to students because of smutty App Store

NYT: Apple Bans Some Apps for Sex-Tinged Content

23 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by .

Posted in Apple, iPhone, iPhone Apps, iTunes, News, Top stories |

  • http://www.chillifresh.com Jon

    “have to put the needs of the kids and parents first” this is such a BS line.
    If they really cared they would implement this consistently:
    http://chillifresh.com/2010/02/22/nyt-apple-responds/

    I bet the parents of kids who view the Playboy App screenshots will be much happier to know that the naked woman is photographed by playboy!

  • http://www.daedana.co.uk/ daedana

    Again this is quite unbelievable. Boobs have never hurt anyone(or then have, but not very frequently).
    I think Apple is just going too far with this ban. Some sexual contents may be banned, but all?

  • Charli

    Until they can come up with a way to make 100% sure that kids can not see the apps or buy the apps they have little choice. Because they will have lawsuits, complaints etc so long as the parental controls don’t work. Right now the app developers are the ones that set the ratings and yes some of them set it lower than it should be.

    I will give that legit catalogs etc have a right to complain and I’m sure there’s a method for them to do that.

    also, folks that have 50 ‘objectionable’ apps or more (like the guy with 500) are often app spammers who create a new app to get more money out of folks which is just lame. So excuse me for not crying over them losing out.

  • justsomeone

    Thank you Apple for banning those apps. The thing is, if they really wanted to keep sex-themed apps, they need to make a sex-themed CATEGORY. If I’m trying to find a dining app for example, I do not want to see 100 similar sex-themed apps lined up in my way. It’s hard enough searching for apps without sifting through irrelevant ones. Again, if people loved them so much, they need to be under some category instead of stashing them under photography, lifestyle, etc. And anyway, sex-themed anything is EVERYWHERE! Stop whining.

  • Knightlie

    @Chrli: “also, folks that have 50 ‘objectionable’ apps or more (like the guy with 500) are often app spammers who create a new app to get more money out of folks which is just lame. So excuse me for not crying over them losing out.”

    Exactly, the guy should diversify instead of spamming with cheaply-made derivatives of the same app. That’s something else Apple should look at – one developer had 1500 apps on the store, all basically the same.

  • Bas

    the worst things happen in the world in order to ‘protect the children’. I never heard those children complaining, but even then, I think they have superior ways of getting boobies on their iphone screens anyway (its called the internet).

  • Aga

    Well done Apple! Yes, I’m a guy and I love boobs but the App Store was full of these nonsense apps! If you want to watch some real boobs + extra naked parts then ask Google for help.

  • http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell

    Frankly, this is bullshit. In the same interview where Philip W. Schiller justifies removing 5000 apps after “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,” which then takes down a beachwear retailer and videogame, he says it’s fine that SI and Playboy stay, “because each is from “a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format”.

    This stance is indefensible. You either sell these apps or you don’t. You don’t say “it’s OK for high-profile publishers to have swimsuit apps” (which, frankly, ARE overtly sexual—they’re only there so people can ogle at the girls) and then ban shops selling actual swimsuits.

  • Johanna

    With the Android market well under way to total dominance of Boy club titty ogling, testosterone filled porn and other statements of male stupidity when given a free range, it could be nice to not have all that crap all over the iPhone marketplace.

    And, honest boys, you’ll get porn into your damned phones in other ways won’t you?

  • Joseph

    The whining over this ban is hard to take seriously. No other retail store, online or off, is required to stock porn on thier shelves. Go get you porn elsewhere and stick the photos on your phone. Problem solved.

  • http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell

    @Johanna: Banning porn is one thing, but Apple has taken down apps with women in bikinis and a swimwear retailer. That is Disney level censorship. Actually, it’s worse—I can’t imagine Disney would pixelate a standard beach scene, for example.

    That so many people commenting (and I’m not suggesting this is you, Johanna) on articles on this site don’t seem to be able to differentiate between bikini-clad women, minor titillation and sauce, and actual porn, is extremely worrying.

  • accolon

    Some of these comment are unbelievably stupid, like the one by Joseph.

    There is NO porn on the App Store, and there NEVER WAS. Perhaps take a dictionary and try to look up what “porn” really is.

    The main problem with this ban is exactly what Craig described above: Apple is taking down harmless applications at random. Playboy is okay because it’s “high profile”, while a swimsuit shop (!) is considered a danger for children. WTF?!

    Hypocrisy for sure.

  • Scott James

    Like it or not, the store belongs to Apple and they can do as they please. The people who take issue with this are the minority, that is why Apple is doing it. You’re not the people Apple is worried about upsetting, you’re not the largest contributers to Apple’s bottom line. Apple is shifting towards the family and they should. More money to made there.

    Shut your holes and take it like grown-ups. Like Johanna said, get your porn elsewhere.

    :-)

  • Erik

    It seems like it would be pretty easy to use the Apple account as an age verifier. Create an apps content rating system, similar to the video game ratings. Let parents block “mature-themed” apps on their kids’ iPhones and let adults access these apps if they want to because… they’re adults.

    Why not go this route?

  • http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell

    @Scott: “Apple is shifting towards the family”. Really? How is banning a swimwear app and retaining both Playboy and SI apps “shifting towards the family”? What it is is retaining high-profile apps with sexual content, and banning everything else to appease complaining idiots.

    @Erik: Why not go down the route you propose? Clearly, because it’s far too sensible.

  • Greg

    I find this action by Apple the “Mother of all Hypocrisy”.

    This is a company with revenue of $50+ billion and $30+ billion in the bank and they “exploit” workers in Third World Countries who are paid $2 day to manufacture their products.

    And their trying to police morals here. They need to look inside first before they start instilling their superior moral character onto others.

  • halapeno

    Damn women are always complaining about something.

  • http://www.tristanpipo.com Tristan

    I agree that kids shouldn’t have access to this but seems like it would be easy enough to put them into a category all by themselves that you need to verify you are old enough to go into with an iTunes account and password. So people that want to get those apps can and people that don’t well if they can’t see it they usually won’t notice it.

  • Will R

    If they need to put the women and children first, how about taking a page from Microsoft and every other videogame console maker and putting an easy to use filter system that checks movie ratings, music with Explicit Lyrics and apps that have an AO rating from Apple; that way little Timmy can’t access movies with naked flesh, music with offensive lyrics and apps with boobies and skin showing. In a lot of ways I love Apple, but sometimes they can be pretty retarded.

  • Bree

    I admit, I sent in a complaint. I also offered a solution though. Make a category for those apps so they have a place. It’s annoying to be glancing through the photography apps and have most of them be cheap tacky apps barely masking their porn intent.

    I asked Apple to accept they’d sell them and as such, just make a category for it. Put it all there so it’s not as in your face while shopping.

    Funny, when a rate my tat app first came out and ended up flooded w/ porn photos. My complaint to Apple got a response of, “Oh well, it is rated over 17″. Even when I pushed the issue and sent them the screen shots of pretty hardcore porn that was on the app.

    Now they want to go the other way…well, neither is working and I don’t see why we can’t just give a place for those apps to keep everyone happy.

  • http://retromaccast.ning.com/profile/JamesWages James Wages

    Reading most of the comments above makes me shudder to think of the kind of hormone-driven readership we have here at Cult of Mac!

    I also thought it rather interesting to see Cult of Mac taking its own indirect stab at Apple by posting no less than 3 racy female body photos in its 3/4 top stories at the top of the site.

    Well, I for one applaud this move by Apple. There’s nothing wrong with listening to feedback from families who want less of the sex plastered in front of their face daily. People with addictions to sex will obviously have a problem with it; but just like any other addiction, it is beneficial to get oneself checked into a rehab facility to deal with it.

    I also muse at the blank AD square in the upper left corner of Cult of Mac. Previously, there was an in-your-face sex app in the bottom left of the 4 ad squares in the upper left section of this Cult of Mac site. Thanks to Apple, that offensive ad is now gone. What a relief!

    Perhaps some of you read Cult of Mac in a closet, but I do not. I have family around. And if I am reading through Cult of Mac and my wife or 7 year old daughter comes around and sees something overtly sex-driven, they will ask me what I am looking at. Seriously. So Cult of Mac would be good to tone down its own excess amount of sexual emphasis, regardless of how addicted your writers may be to it. Cult of Mac is about, well, the Mac. It’s not to be content centered on the female body. Let’s keep focus where it belongs, on the Mac. That holds true for your advertising too.

  • ArrowSmith

    What I want to know about these complaining parents is when did they stop being sexual beings and turn into these prudish monsters? Europeans are not like this.

  • Cass

    Most of us are missing the point here, we are a nation of censorship. Whether you choose to believe it or not is not the point.
    This is BS and when you see BS you can’t twist it or spin it any other way.
    Right is right and wrong is wrong.
    If it pisses you off that Little Timmy (stole that from someone above sorry!) is looking at “sex themed beachwear” from the app store he’s probably doing a hell of a lot more on Safari!
    Damn I wish parents would raise their kids instead of expecting someone else to do it for them. Yes i’m ranting but seriously..my kid is 8yrs old. I’ve taught her about guns, gimmicks and the constant barrage of TV ads that plague the world.
    SEX SELLS period.
    Now, fast forward 6 years…IF i decide to get her a phone I will not not be wondering what she will be looking at because I will have done my job as a parent and taught her values and morals. It is ultimately up to her to decide. Whether she does or not is out of my hands!!!! I will still have done my job to educate her and she will think, “hey, i’m looking at naked guys..i shouldn’t be, and i know its wrong–dad taught me better.”
    In all reality i don’t know why America isn’t pissed off about not being able to tether the damn iphone instead of bitching about questionable pics!
    I’m done!