Apple Bans Sexy iPhone Apps

By Amanda Pendolino on February 23rd, 2010

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Apple has tightened its restrictions on sexy or suggestive apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, CNN reports. Not surprisingly, many of the most popular programs in the iTunes app store have been removed. Apple executive Phil Schiller told The New York Times, “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.”

The new rules affect a wide range of apps. For example, The Wobble app, which adds a jelly-like wobble motion to any user supplied photo, was recently removed because advertisements suggested it could be used on photos of breasts. (Very mature, men.)

Here is a list of the new rules:

1. No images of women in bikinis.

2. No images of men in bikinis.

3. No skin.

4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs.

5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex — all banned.

6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing.

7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …).

Interestingly, Sports Illustrated and Playboy apps are still OK. “The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” Schiller said of SI.

We’d all be furious if these bans were applied to the internet at large. Is Apple being too puritanical?

Photo: Apple