Back when Apple first launched its App Store, Steve Jobs showed a slide with six categories of apps that would be verboten: “Porn, privacy, bandwidth hog, illegal, malicious,” and “unforeseen.” Well, as the App store has matured, apparently Apple has, too, and is now officially allowing uncensored “explicit” content to make its way into the App Store with new ratings guidelines in place.
Macenstein, the Mac enthusiast site, ushered in the new iPhone/iPod Touch app era with the headline, “And then there was porn,” followed by the rather titillating lede: “Today the iTunes app store became a man, having finally seen its first adult app. Meaning nudity. Meaning boobies.”
The app in question, “Hottest Girls” ($1.99), carries a 17+ rating from Apple and until recently only featured women in lingerie and bathing suits. But Hottest Girls’ developer Allen Leung told bloggers Thursday that, “We uploaded nude topless pics today. This is the first app to have nudity.”
Macenstein noted that the announcement rivaled “the first transmissions from the moon landing in importance.”
Of course, this brings into question the whole notion of just what “porn” is–and isn’t. In some parts of America, an app that boasts “completely naked pics” would be considered indecent, plain and simple. But in parts of Europe, well, Hottest Girls is just a day at the beach.
What do you guys think? Is this further relaxing of Apple’s once strict code of app conduct good news? Or is it a decent into exploitation and a cheap way for Apple and developers to rake in the dough? And how far do you think Apple will let things go?
[Via]
Looks like apple already pulled the app. Bummer I was just getting the lotion down.