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Apple bans boobs, babes and bikinis from App Store (updated 2x)

Apple has completely banned apps with pictures of women (and men, yuck!) in bathing suits (bikinis and one-piece) and pretty much any images of boobs, babes, booty, sex, skin and even silhouettes.
Written by Jason D. O'Grady, Contributor

wobble-ad-itunes-v01Its far from official but a slightly more clear picture is starting to emerge of Apple's new morality rules at the App Store. After dropping the hammer on apps with "overtly sexual content" on Friday, Apple has tightened the noose even tighter on purveyors of iPorn.

Apple is working overtime this weekend, already deleting over 5,000 boob, babe and bikini apps as if the Queen Mother herself was dropping by for a visit.

Jon Atherton, developer of the popular Wobble app, spoke with Apple about the change in its policy and discovered that the new policies about sexual content in iPhone and iPod touch apps may be even stricter than originally thought.

According to Atherton Apple has completely banned apps with pictures of women (and men, yuck!) in bathing suits (bikinis and one-piece) and pretty much any images of boobs, babes, booty, sex, skin and even silhouettes – including the one in his screenshot above.

Better go grab those SI Swimsuit 2010, Playboy and Kim Kardashian apps before Apple's thought police shut them down.

I wonder if Apple will use the famous kill switch to delete the apps from people's devices?

Update: One explanation for the Apple crackdown could be that although Parental Controls are available in iTunes 9, they aren't synced to the iPhone and iPod. But still, wouldn't it be easier to improve the Parental Controls feature rather than shut down a whole category of apps? Shouldn't developers at least be given some sort of notice of the new rules before their apps are removed?

Update2: The developer of Manga Strip Poker tells me that his app was removed but that his competitor Sexy Poker 2009 is still on sale. Saying "maybe it is because it is a Gameloft title?"

After the jump, Atherton's 7 "New Rules" of the App Store...

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