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Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Jobs: Apple has "moral responsibility" to block iPhone porn; jabs Android (again)

By Sam Diaz | April 20, 2010, 2:30am PDT

Summary: Steve Jobs makes no apologies for rejecting pornography in the iPhone app store, singles out Android as the platform for adult content.

Steve Jobs has already said once, in an e-mail reply to a customer, that rejecting an iPhone app submitted by a (now) Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist named Mark Fiore was a mistake. (And is being fixed.) But in another Steve Jobs e-mail sent to another customer, the Apple CEO makes no apologies for blocking porn apps on the iPhone.

Techcrunch has posted an e-mail exchange between Jobs and customer Matthew Browing, noting that Jobs has lately been on a roll of sorts when it comes to answering customer’s e-mails. In an e-mail sent to Jobs, Browing - an admitted convert to Apple products after the iPhone 3G came out - said he was starting to have a “philosophical issue with your company” and told Jobs that Apple’s role isn’t moral police but rather maker of cool consumer gadgets. He wrote:

It appears that more and more Apple is determining for it’s consumers what content they should be able to receive… I’m all for keeping porn out of kids hands. Heck – I’m all for ensuring that I don’t have to see it unless I want to. But… that’s what parental controls are for. Put these types of apps into categories and allow them to be blocked by their parents should they want to.

To which Jobs replied: “…we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone.” (I fixed a typo for him.)

So there you have it. If you have a particular fetish for… well, that’s your business… on a mobile device, then you should probably re-think the iPhone. And this is the second time Jobs has pointed out the availability of porn for the Android devices. The first was during a press Q&A after the announcement of iPhone OS 4.0.

Here’s the thing: Jobs is absolutely right. Clearly opposed to pornography, Jobs surely realizes he can’t make it go away completely. But he doesn’t have to contribute to the spreading of it - especially in a place where children often shop using a technology that many parents still don’t understand well enough to police. (As a parent, I can appreciate where he’s coming from.) Jobs has taken a position for his company and he is sticking by it. There’s no shame in that. In fact, he’s earned my respect for it.

I still have some concerns about Apple’s control over content as it relates to journalism and news outlets - but that’s a different debate.

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Jobs Is A Control Freak

This is just another example of his psychotic desire to rule the world.

As long as Jobs lives I will never give Apple a single penny of my hard earned money.
sismoc
20th Apr 2010
- Reply to
- Flag
and a moronic old fart, too...

The past few years have shown decision after decision where Jobs was out of touch with the modern world. He left MMS off the iPhone for 2 years. He left cameras off the iPad. Now, he thinks he's qualified to be judge and jury on what defines "porn." He thinks he should get to dictate the moral compass for every person of every religious or belief system who uses Apple products. Is Ford going to start dictating whether we can drive their cars to strip clubs next? Is Tropicana going to sue us if we mix their orange juice with vodka? Jobs is narcissistic beyond belief, with no recent intelligent behavior to back it up. He should be put out to pasture.
BillDem
20th Apr 2010
- Reply to
- Flag
IRONIC: Who's the control freak?

Jobs may control the iphone's content, but that's his ... um ... Job. What
right do you have to tell him how he should run his company?
wjanoch
20th Apr 2010
- Flag
How is it his job?

How is it his job to control how I use a tool I buy? If I buy a hedge trimmer, it's none of the maker's business if I decide to use to to decapitate the neighbor's cat.

If I build a home, it is none of my business if the people who bought the home choose to have orgies every Friday night and post the videos on Youtube.

Once I BUY a computer, what I do with it is my business, not the government's, not Jobs.

This astroturf terror of kids getting their hands on porn is merely an excuse to control people and try to create the type of utopian society that JOBS wants us to have. That kind of thinking is far too common in this increasingly socialistic world.

I am NOT my brother's keeper, nor is Jobs' mine.

As a parent, RAISE YOUR OWN BLASTED KIDS! Stop trying to infringe on the rest of the world because you couldn't keep it in your pants and are too lazy to do the work of raising the results.
hiraghm@...
20th Apr 2010
- Flag
It's certainly...

Not Job's job, or Apple's job, to provide you with porn, go get your own. In no way did or does Apple advertise that their devices are for viewing porn (though they could be used for such) nor do they force you not to use their devices to watch porn. What you use your iPhone or iPad for is your business, just don't expect Apple to provide you with things the company has CLEARLY stated they will not be providing. Speaking of acting like an adult how's about making an informed purchase?
oncall
20th Apr 2010
- Flag
You can do what you want with the iPhone

The App store is a service. Your complaint is akin
to complaining that McDonalds doesn't have
strippers. You can jailbreak your phone and put
any app you want on there.

Now I am against Apple trying so hard to prevent
people from jailbreaking their phones. If they
want to void their warranties thats their right.
shadfurman
20th Apr 2010
- Flag
Excuse me

Excuse me... Once you buy a computer, it IS the government's business to know how you use it. If you use it to embezzle money or distribute child pornography, the government will be knocking on your front door. Please be responsible with your words - you are not totally autonomous: you are subject to laws and regulations like everyone else.
willshell
20th Apr 2010
- Flag
censorship not justified ??? technology should enable free flow of info!!

apple's core values are about building pro tools that enable people to design
information as they desire.

The zen of the mac is that the tools don't get in the way of your work.

Apple's new-found success with consumer products seems to have turned this
ethos on it's head! Apple now seems to be obsessed with limiting what you can
not do with their tools, rather than what you can.

Steve Jobs -in an obessional persuit of vindication for his ouster in the 80's - is
destroying tge very brand he was instrumental in originally creating in the 70's.

This new regime of thought control is a deep insult to apple's loyal customers
who carried the "think different" torch in the dark days.

And there doesn't seem any limit to where this Bowlderization is headed: it's not
just naked bodies that are being excised: the Dali Lama, no less, is also
censored from the iTunes store in china! The perverse irony that Jobs is
supposed to be a Buddhist doesn't seem to present any qualms for him to
cravey submit to a microsoft-worthy level of appeasement to a communist
dictatorship!).

censorship is the antithesis of a civilized, open society; where beliefs are
formed & testied by individual experience not just social tradition; where
knowing how to formulate the right question is just as important as repeating
the right answer; where the right to critiicize & dissent is enabled -not impeded-
by the tools & conventions at man's disposal.

Information - like the human spirit - yearns to be free. Our machine are
supposed to liberate us not shackle us.

the time is soon approaching where even the most devoted apple enthusiasts -
like me- will realize (sadly but inevitably) that the time has come for Steve Jobs
leave before the damage he does outweighs the good he does.
davidf01
20th Apr 2010
- Flag
Totally agree with you...

...except the government is maybe the one to have a say about what you do with the computer... If you publish or download kiddie porn, well... that's where I draw the line, you get the picture.

Steve Jobs wasn't elected as a law maker, or moral policeman for the whole planet. He's a salesman and once we buy his stuff we can do with it as we like. I worked hard for the money to buy an iPhone, but Stevo thinks it's a licensed product and he's the owner...WRONG! It's mine, I jailbreak it, put porn in it, the Dalai Lama, the Pulitzer winning cartoonist he banned from the Apple Store and every go-dd-amn thing I like. That's my right. PARENTS: Take care of your kids, the TV, the teenage baby sitter, the state or stupid Steve Jobs won't do the job for you... Don't come crying when they are 15 crack addicts!

If porn is so bad... why is that PLAYBOY APP still exist in the Apple store?
Jediguardian
21st Apr 2010
- Flag
It is still all about choice

Until government finally gains monopoly control of every sector of U.S. business (as is the current direction), we still have a choice. Maybe Steve Jobs IS a control freak. In this case, I'm glad he is. But if someone doesn't like that, then they can get a Droid. Works for me, and it works for any society where there is still a choice of products and services. Now, after 8 years of the current presidential administration, that may not be the case. But, for now, let free market Apple be and do what they want.
wls
20th Apr 2010
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- Flag
A common theme amongst the Anti Apple crowd.

Is their despise of the free market. They can't stand the idea that a
business can decide to sell what it wants to sell. It's also odd that so
many need porn so desperately on their mobile phone that they want
companies that don't sell and have never sold porn to be forced into
selling porn in their own stores.

This is just another example of his psychotic desire to rule the
world.

Yes, one G-rated App at a time. Muhuhahahaha!!!
Tigertank
20th Apr 2010
- Reply to
- Flag
A common theme amongst the APPLE FANBOY crowd

Is to blindly embrace everything apple does like
brainless zombies. It's just a corporate entity
people! If the product is good, go and buy it. No
need to kiss the CEO's feet.
poch333
20th Apr 2010
- Flag
You must blindly embrace everything apple does

Otherwise you might encourage another Timothy McVeigh!
hiraghm@...
20th Apr 2010
- Flag
Brainless, is attacking an opinion you agree with.

A common theme amongst the APPLE FANBOY crowd---Is to blindly
embrace everything apple does like
brainless zombies.

So you have no meaningful critique about the substance of what I wrote
and can't make a counter argument? But you still attacked. Sounds like
you're the brainless zombie, mate.

It's just a corporate entity
people! If the product is good, go and buy it.

That is Exactly the point I was making. It's a free market. If you
don't like the product Apple makes, than buy another- Don't whine about
how you're entitled to have Apple provide you with porn. Seems like you
agree with Steve Jobs but still attacked because you hate Apple.
Tigertank
20th Apr 2010
- Flag
Do You Remember Beta vs VHS ?

Sony knew they had a superior product in their Beta. They would have won their marketing war except for one mistake - they refused to allow any porn to be licensed on the Beta platform. Result: the porn marketers were forced to move to VHS. The mass market followed to VHS. Beta lost market share until their product sales were negligible. Is Jobs repeating the same mistake ?
coopejx@...
20th Apr 2010
- Flagged