!?
Posted on 07/16/2010 5:28:30 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand
Is there really such a thing as "freedom from porn?"
Maybe not completely. But Apple CEO Steve Jobs wants to make his iPhones and iPads as porn-free as possible—banning the use of apps containing pornography and "adult" images from the wildly popular devices. (Apps are free or inexpensive mini-programs that are downloaded into smartphones and, now, the iPad.)
Jobs' numerous critics jumped on the anti-porn policy, which was quietly started in February and picked up this spring with the iPad's release. They filled the blogosphere with cries of censorship and freedom of speech "violations." One e-mail critic even accused the computer giant of becoming "moral police."
The critics are out of line, and we applaud Jobs and Apple Inc. for their stand.
Said Jobs: "(We) believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone." Indeed, he even suggested that those who want to view pornography on their smartphones should purchase a competitor's model, where "you can download porn, your kids can download porn."
"That's a place we don't want to go," he said, "so we're not going to go there."
To be sure, the Internet remains a powerful and relatively untamed frontier where images and information—including Web sites dedicated to pornography and other objectionable matter—travel at lightening speed. Making it worse, the Internet offers it up anonymously, bringing it directly into one's home or one's phone.
That's why having such a major tech player as Apple hold up a stop sign, even one that's limited to the company's own apps, is such a welcome development. It raises awareness of a problem and it's a policy that could influence others down the road. Microsoft, in fact, has already announced that "pornography...or content that a reasonable person would consider to be adult or borderline adult content" will not be allowed in apps on the Windows Phone 7 to be released later this year.
Recently, opponents of pornography came together in Washington for a briefing that explored the increasing consequences of pornography in today's world. The audience included members of Congress and their staffs; speakers included anti-porn experts from the academic and psychological fields and a former pornography performer. The organizers' purpose was to educate members of Congress about the real-life consequences of pornography and to encourage them to fight for stronger enforcement of existing obscenity laws.
One of the speakers, from a group dedicated to making the Internet safer for children and families, gave examples of how easy it is for children to be exposed to pornography online, whether accidentally or intentionally, and said there's a need to cry out, "Enough is enough!"
In a way, that's what Steve Jobs and Apple are doing with their new policy, and what Microsoft plans as well. And it's more than just crying out. It's action, in an area where too little action has been taken.
In an exchange with a blogger who complained about Apple's anti-porn policy, Jobs wrote, "You might care more about porn when you have kids...It's not about freedom. It's about Apple trying to do the right thing for its users."
Indeed it is.
Said Jobs: "(We) believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone." Indeed, he even suggested that those who want to view pornography on their smartphones should purchase a competitor's model, where "you can download porn, your kids can download porn."
A backbone like this, plus a stellar string of winners, makes it easier to understand why it's becoming cool to hate Apple.
However, this is, as far as I'm concerned, the crown on Mr. Jobs' most remarkable career.
Godspeed Mr.Jobs. Hope you're sincere. Don't be surprised if it costs you everything.
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Good, but it may also be that such sites, i assume, are responsible for a lot of malware.
Hello. When was the last time a captain of industry showed a backbone? If it was just about malware, he wouldn't have opened the can of worms labelled "morality."
I am pretty sure this is barking up the wrong tree.
How could they possibly insure this without looking at everyone’s business(oops, I mean junk, oops again, I meant images)
The only way to really block this is through heavy moderation, limited access, and voluntary abidance. And that is not why people buy Ipads.
!?
Wow! This great. Jobs just gained a big fan here.
well idunno. should i put my money on you, or Steve Jobs....I'll think it over...;)
Given, that is, the specific corporately and legally cleared limited liability definitions of "Said," Jobs," "we," "believe," "[second] we," "have," "a," "moral," "responsibility" and "to," of course.
omg. some people wouldn’t get the point if it impaled them.
Perhaps. But that would depend on the specific corporately and legally cleared limited liability definitions of "impaled," of course.
(P.S. Welcome to the real Silicon Valley.)
we'll take that under review.
Excellent.
Backbone, morals - he’s doing the right thing.
It will become cool to hate porn.
Just like it’s cool to hate rolling in piles of ****.
lol
Post 6.
It only took 6 replies to get a pro-porn reply.
Not to mention the fact that blocking pornographic apps is rather pointless if there’s a pre-installed web browser anyway. This is just posturing on Jobs’ part, I think.
I didn’t know this. Makes me wanna go buy an IPAD (i’ve been thinking about doing it anyways).
Go ahead think it over.
I am not pro porn, I am just saying it is ridiculous for him to say this.
It maybe a great thought or idea, but it will never come to pass. I predict in the super unlikely event that Iwhatever(iphone,ipad,ipod) figures out a way to do this and do this, which they wont, they will become relics in their own time.
While most people like us would like to see less porn on the net(or more..just kidding) the idea of having a wildly popular device that has a as a major selling point the ability to not show porn(or JPG,MPEG,AVI,WMV,GIF, ETC...) will quickly become wildly not popular as a large numbers of people rightly or wrongly view porn or the internet in general.
Unless you are willing to block the internet, pervs will be able to get what they want on any device out there.
You can thank Pakistan for that(from previous FR post about the wacky Pakis porn addiction added to their preponderance to be good programmers)
PS. kind of ironic username: “The Invisible Hand” to be posting about porn. lol
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