News: Apple Bans Boobie Apps (+ Swimsuits, Skin & Innuendo)

For all iPhone users whom enjoy Apple's wide selection of titillating apps, bad news. All gone. Not only are the R-Rated apps gone, but so are the apps that may be merely PG-13.

Via Tech Crunch, developer Jon Atherton, who is behind the popular application Wobble, posted this list of Apple's new rules:

1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn't ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in this pic)
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble "overtly sexual!)
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)

Yesterday's New York Times has an interesting piece on the issue, picking up on Atherton's point above that the banning process is... questionable:

"Though Dirty Fingers (pictured above) was removed from Apple's App Store, a Sports Illustrated app is still available, leaving app developers to wonder at Apple's screening process." 

Apple's response to the bannings?

"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." (read more at NYT...)