App Store 17+ Apps show up in iTunes regardless of parental control settings.

Originator:jiva.devoe
Number:rdar://7551166 Date Originated:1/18/10
Status:Open Resolved:
Product:iApps Product Version:9.0.2
Classification:UI Reproducible:Always
 
Regardless of parental control ratings, 17+ rated apps show up when casually browsing the app store.  Unlike music and movies, these apps typically have icons, names and screenshots that border on obscene just by themselves.  It's gotten so bad that it's actually not possible to allow a typical young child to browse the app store by themselves without them being assaulted by various boob/softcore porn apps.

The apps that are clearly "adult in nature" should either be forced into a separate "Red Light District" category, or they should be hidden when parental controls are enabled.

I specify "Adult in nature" here because clearly, apps that simply allow internet access (for example Twitter clients) should NOT be placed into this "Red Light District".  This is plain common sense here.  What we're talking about is apps like "Abnormally Big Boobs" and "Asian Schoolgirls" and so on.

The point here is to stop the polluting of categories like Lifestyle, Entertainment, etc with these apps that clearly don't belong there.

Of the solutions proposed above, I feel a "Red Light District" category as well as the ability to restrict access to it would be ideal.

Comments

Mobile History

Hi all,

Im a founder of a mobile age verification and parental control (URL/SMS/MMS filtering) company. Tvidia - We were the protection infrastructure behind Telus mobile adult launch and follow on press barrage. What apple is experiencing and will more so as time goes on is what the NA mobile operators are attempting to resolve. To date Tvidia is the only carrier grade solution deployed age verification and conditional access mobile solution. The proposed "Of"Red Light District" category as well as the ability to restrict access to it would be ideal" is manageable and a service offering Tvidia provides.

Apps are definitely an issue, however only part of the issue from a "ensuring age appropriate media reaches age verified handset owners. Red light district as mentioned Tvidia can resolve quickly, in addition to this its important to not forget the ease of access to mobile transcoded adult, gaming, hate, and gambling sites readily available over any 3G or Wifi network.

jiva.devoe - Have you had any response from Apple on this subject? Our infrastructure can be integrated in a two week timeframe. This would be a quick fix with follow on URL and conditional access protection .. should Apple have interest.

mel.bond@tvidia.com www.tvidia.com

By mel.c.bond at Feb. 23, 2010, 12:35 a.m. (reply...)

Duped it too

rdar://7569313

By rickcurran at Jan. 22, 2010, 1:33 p.m. (reply...)

Duped

rdar://7560177

By fraserspeirs at Jan. 20, 2010, 11:19 a.m. (reply...)

Duplicated!

Bug #7555780

By eric at Jan. 19, 2010, 2:06 p.m. (reply...)

Flickr Solution: NIPSA

Flickr has a solution for this problem called "NIPSA" (Not In Public Site Areas). IMO, apps above the current age restriction should simply not appear in searches and indexing pages.

By fraserspeirs at Jan. 18, 2010, 8:47 a.m. (reply...)

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