By An interesting debate started at AndroidForums over a series of applications called SexyBody_v# by a developer named “Sex Disney”. An AF member was searching Android Market for “Disney” in an attempt to find applications for their daughter and what came up? An app icon of naked chicks for SexyBody_v1 through SexyBodyv7:
Even worse, click through to the actual application and yielded “screenshots” which are just nude photos of women:
Check out the description:
Very beautiful Japanese girls without clothes.
Big boobs,sexy body.
You can’t resist their temptation…
Yes… I’m sure this is exactly what someone searching “Disney” wanted to find. I’m happy to see that all traces of the application and the developer have been erased from Android Market, but I have to wonder if that was for trademark infringement, violation of Android Market TOS, or both? I’m guessing both.
Either way, it brings up an interesting question of whether or not Google needs an “Adult” category for Android Market.
[polldaddy poll=2816605]
My personal opinion is “Yes” but I can see how one would want to protect the sanctity of openness by saying no. Once you force yourself to draw the line between adult and not-adult you start having to make more judgement calls and as time goes by all of a sudden you’ve morphed into Apple. Ew… nobody wants that.
But look at what AT&T did with the Backflip. The greatly restricted Android’s capabilities by disallowing non-market apps and preventing some apps from being deleted. I think it would be GREAT if the owner of a service plan could tell their carrier to “lock” the phone as a children’s phone. It would essentially prevent non-market apps from being downloaded in addition to filtering all “Adult” apps out of the market listings. I could also see this being an “option” in the settings of each individual phone, too.
The main problem here is whose responsibility is it? Google’s? Should the carriers handle it? Maybe it should be addressed by parents themselves? Or perhaps Developers should have to mark their application as containing “adult” content and if they fail to do so face possible Android Market banishment?
[polldaddy poll=2816642]
But of course, kids will find a way to see what they want – the interwebz exists.
But that’s not really the point – is it? Should people who DON’T want to see the sexier/smuttier stuff have to pass through it when wading through results and browsing Android Market listings?
You tell us.
Well, see said thread to view my thoughts. ;) But in short – yes, categorize it. Let you know when search results that are returned are from within that category – and maybe even allow you to hide it altogether if you wish.
Yeah, having a category doesn’t somehow make the system less open. It would just be nice to not have to view the garbage spam apps when I’m searching for something legitimate. And having the ability to allow parents to control that would be a benefit. Better a system that can be controlled by parents than a system they choose not to buy because it’s missing this simple system.
It should be as simple as Google Search…”Filter adult content” -> “Off” if you like -> “On” by default. Done. Everyone’s happy :)
And it will make finding those apps easier if that’s the type of thing you’re looking for!
Like Paladaxar said just have it on a filter and if its a phone for a child allow it to be password protected so nothing happens “accidentally”. Problem solved.
I agree, a category would allow the market to stay as open as it is already, but a setting in the phone to disable the adult category and third-party apps (maybe via a pin or something similar) would give parents the necessary tools to protect their children. I am all for openness and freedom, but there is a difference between “open” and hiding apps with naked women under the name Disney.
In general, I think there should be parental controls in android and integrated in the market as well.
Content should maybe be vetted depending on the country of origin that’s uploading it…*cough* Moppin hip 1 – 14 *cough*
Why not make the market have a password for adult material, to were an app that is adult content needs a password to download and open the app.
The Android Market (at least the version I can see on my Droid) already separates things by apps and games, so there’s already walls and filters being put up. But as Palaxadar mentioned, a simple password-protected filter would work just fine and be the easiest way to solve the issue.
Even though I’m not personally interested in this type of content, it should be allowed on an open sourced platform. There should be ways to filter it out if the user chooses. I don’t want to find this type of junk while I’m trying to find a Mickey Mouse app.
In my opinion costumers have to be the judge about the content, with a rating system maybe ?
i like the idea of a setting, and by default it is set not to display apps that have adult content. and if it is a child that has the device require permission from a parent to activate it.
How about adding a way for users to rate an app based on the same scheme as movies? IE: G,PG,…X Than add a way to let parents lock content out by rating.
If filtering out sexual content ends up being a feature, I want the ability to filter out sports-related content!
I just did the same search and that app didn’t come up.
“I just did the same search and that app didn’t come up.”
From the article: “I’m happy to see that all traces of the application and the developer have been erased from Android Market, but I have to wonder if that was for trademark infringement, violation of Android Market TOS, or both? I’m guessing both.”
second survey is misleading. why should anyone be responsible for monitoring the adult category?
Agreed about the google search filter.
Though I’m pretty sure my former phone had the ability to filter adult content on the web browser, whether it was on the phone or via the carrier, I do not recall.
PS. Where’d that last pic come from? I used to talk to a girl on a social community who had that as her profile pic.
I agree with paladaxar and anyone else saying the same. To make a porn category would be bad, cause it brings it all to light more easily. a simple filter would be better. Just go into the settings and turn on the filter then boom, no more smut, and it wont be there glaring at you in a “category” when you are showing off your phone at work.
Google you need to implement this ASAP!!!
Maybe people’s gmail account information should be a deciding factor on the content. For instance if I registered my account and I’m under 17, then the relative content will detect my age and redirect me to something else. That seems transparent, and if for some reason a 17 year wants to see adult content, theres nothing stopping them from working around it. just my 2cents. Oh and parents should always look after their little ones and observe what they do. theres only so much the govt or other people can do.
good find, i think it should be in it’s own category and the whole “child’s” phone thing, if they are a “child” they don’t need a adroid, get them a dumb phone!
Or… They could just restrict every offensive type apps, pic, etc. from the marketplace like someone else we all know and love.
HEIL APPLE!
What is that kid staring at??? lol Love that pic!
Actually, just last night I was searching for a picture gallery app to replace my CLIQ’s shitty one when about 200 apps popped up, a little surprised, imagine my surprise after quickly figuring out that a vast majority of them were “sexy girl” type galleries! A little annoyed I sifted through them for about 20 minutes before I found exactly what it was that I was looking for…
As it now stands there is an (ever growing) contingent of “app developers” who use this stratagem (or something similar as described in the article above) to seed there spam wear everywhere, irregardless of whether or not it belongs in the searches it pops up in. Content to condone Apple’s actions in their “Sexy app” purge I gleefully indulged in all of the backlash Apple received all over the blogosphere until last night when I realized what it would feel like to have to wade through all this crap in the Marketplace when looking for something legitimate on a regular basis… What’s the harm in some pruning from time to time, or even a liberal use of the banhammer from time to time with intentionally deceitful developers or repeat offenders through peer review (by the app stores top developers or something)? What’s wrong with a more stringent set of rules for conduct in the market place? Why not make categories and a rating system for all apps, if nothing more for the ease of use and navigation for the end user? While I love my Google search, and would be hard pressed to give it up, that doesn’t mean I want my market place searches for purchases to be like them when unfiltered… Shame on you Google, this shouldn’t even be an issue for you!
What about a way to filter all the worthless “Luxus” apps.
I think that there should be an adult category and that there is no need to monitor it as there is a report button :D
Um…since the “kid” in your sample photo is drinking a beer, I doubt there’s anything wrong with sneaking a peek… just my two cents.
Beyond making a category for adult material, the Market just needs more categories or better organization in general.
I say Google should moderate explicit adult apps and tell them to go to MiKandi (they need it).
i’m with the people who said rating system. they already do it for movies and video games, why not apps? google (or someone else) should give ratings to new apps, make the developers put these ratings in the title/description, and then give the option to search by rating or lock out certain ratings.
You can have an “adult” category in the market, but in the end all of those pictures and videos are freely available on the internet – no app required.
It is the parent’s job to keep their computers and phones age appropriate.
If your child is too young to see a naked lady, they are too young to play with your phone, or your computer unattended.
It’s called “parenting”. People should try it sometime.
I got an Android phone so I could get apps like this and all the other “adult” apps out there! :) I won’t buy any Apple products just because of their BS restrictions! If you pay for a product you should be able to do what you want with it and put whatever you want on it! Apple censorship SUXS!!
Verizon has a process in MyVerizon to block certain content on their phones. Now I’m not sure if it extends to Android Market or not, but it does extend to the browser.
@alien
I understand what you are saying, there is no dictating the entire internet! The problem is that Android is not only for cell phones. I was waiting for a 5 or 4.3 inch tablet for my little brother. He is not surfing the entire net while he is in the Market, he is only looking for games. If Android wants to be a hand-held video game machine, it has to remember that children love these hand-held thingies! I mean, if I buy games on the Market, shouldn’t I just get an Android device for my little brother?
The shouldn’t have an adult section because they shouldnt have porn at all. Being an adult doesn’t change what’s right and wrong. Your’e supposed to grow up not Gross up! If you are having a HARD time not being a perverted adult then go find your perversions away from children. That’s a part of growing up is noticing that certain people hang out in certain types of places doing cetain types of things. Android marketplace should not be a porn in training outlet and it will likely damage the longterm viability of it since the other type of people like to segregate for safety and well being.
Category.
Kids old enough to get that stuff, will get it.
Always have, always will.
OR…
Kids just don’t need phones with Apps.
Plain and simple.
My sister who’s 6.5 years younger than me has had an iPhone, for over a year, while I have never had a phone like that. She has no need for an iPhone, much less a phone (my opinion =P).
If you don’t want your kids finding/searching for stuff, don’t get them a phone with the ability.
Lubetube… Both iPhone and android can come together and unite under one awesome website.. Behold the glory of mobile optimized h.264 porn.. Gives new power to the words “fuc flash”
such awesomely put togther mobile sites.. Android should thank Steve jobs for saying FU to flash 3 years ago.. You CAN say thanks but no thanks.. Thanks woz and Steve for making and marketing the personal computer.. (but back then, didn’t use apples.. Was smart enough to comprehend the contribution though..) how soon they forget..
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Its just as easy as someone said earlier. One little setting, filter on or off.
Oh, anyone tried that pornhub downloader thats available on the market?
have all apps in the market rated adult if appropiate
then like someone said…
have it default like this: if you’re google account says your under 18… never display content market adult.
and have there parents be able to unlock it at that level…
(so that adult content is also blocked in google searches if the kid is logged into his gmail or what not :P)
as for the crap apps:
make the app market more user rated oriented…
so that if an app is rated as a spam app, its place in the list is much lower…. (much like how google search works currently…)
and make users be able to add filters… like filter all apps from developerX
and if that still doesn’t work.. add the option to mark apps ass “google please kill this developer” and once an arbitrary number of users have clicked this… is google sends its nukes…
making the world a better place to live… (tbh it dont have to be nukes… but i would like to see some people die… i think this even fits within the whole dont be evil thing :) )
It’s kind of simple:
1. Developers should put their sexy apps into the “adult” category, that should be a rule.
2. If someone fills a complaint about an app which is not in that category, but should be, and the complaint is valid, Google moves that app in the adult category.
3. Three strikes. If a developer miscategorizes 3 apps, he/she is out, can’t submit an app to the market ever.
4. Give Android a parental lock option. Of course there will be smart kids who flash their phones to remove it, but still, it will calm down parents.
Also: Google should do what Apple should have done: separate the market into “Approved” and “Unapproved” sections. The market should remain open, any app uploaded should go first in the “Unapproved” section, and once Google checks it and it works fine, isn’t in an inappropriate category and isn’t malicious, it gets in the “Approved” section (malicious software should be removed even from the “Unapproved” section). The first time the user opens the unapproved category, it should display a warning window with some text like:
“Warning!
These apps haven’t been approved by Google. They might be in the wrong category, be malicious or offensive, ruin your user experience, or simply might not work at all! Download them on your own responsibility!”
Also, when searching for apps, there should be an “include unapproved apps” checkbox,and the first time the user checks it, it should display the same warning.
That way Android could have a high-quality section (and the featured apps should only be selected from there, meaning developers will aim for quality), and still remain open.
Maybe a tick box for “allow adult application” like the one for unofficial apps (with some kind of password protection so kids can’t “just” tick it alone).
@Screamster
If you have to ask that, you need out of the basement more often…… :)
I’ve wanted a filter for the longest. There’s way too many stupid apps for looking at girls in general. Bikini apps, moppin hipline, like honestly who wants to rub a digital butt on a phone screen? You could access way better porn thru the browser lmao. And never mind all the other junk apps that are either spam or crappy attempts to cash in and copy other apps: tower defense, card games, sliding puzzles, the market’s so flooded with crap I hardly look at the “just in” category anymore. A filter to block certain types of apps/games would be great! How bout publishers too? That way when someone spams 50 apps into the market I’ll never have to know.
http://mikandi.com/
its old news but maybe people need to be reminded…
No different than porn sites on-line with a computer, and parents should teach there kids to say no to porn. You do need to be 18 to get a phone for your self, but if a parent gives there kid a phone with porn in the market its no different than a parent giving there kid a computer.
Here’s the issue I have noticed that’s been vaguely mentioned but not directly stated: If I buy a phone for my child of, say 15, and that 15 year old gets port on his phone. I can then sue the provider and Google for not adequately providing blocks or protection, but instead providing it to the underage child. We can argue who is actually responsible ’till we’re all blue in the face, but everyone of us knows that’s a likely scenario. Not only that, but, I really will not buy a smart phone for my children until I can reasonably guarantee that this kind of thing can be blocked. Not only that, but as an employer, I don’t want that kind of access / liability on my head either.
I agree with the many that there needs to be a sort function, as well as a filter, and a parental blocker, and categories that are strictly managed by Google (considering this is their market) and the phone provider. If a parent blocks porn but a dev is allowed to put it under “pictures” or “games” it’s not very affective.
As inane as some of the apps can be, just offer an option to filter it out for those who find it offensive, uninteresting, or inappropriate for their child or whatnot. Apple’s odd and conflicting censorship efforts of their own app store was a main reason I had no interest in their platform, even though it was more mature(had more/better apps, games).
Kids shouldn’t be allowed to use Android period. Simple as that! Thats why theres the iphone for.
ITS ALL ABOUT FREEDOM.NOW WITH ANDROID,WE ARE POWERFUL AGAIN. NOT APPLES CONTROL IN THEIR WORLD. BUT TRUE POWER AND FREEDOM.PUT A FILTER…ITS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.FREEDOM FROM CENSORSHIP.NO LIMITS…ON ANDROID OR THE WEB.PEROID.
Concerned Adult said it well. there are a lot of liability concerns. of course, this conversation could make many twists and turns, one of them being that this subject is simply a subtopic of the fact that the market is in dire need of a better orginizational strategy with better search features. I will leave that one alone for now though.
Personally I dont want to have to wade through a bunch of crap, pornographic or otherwise, to find what im looking for. the “problem” with “total openness”, or “freedom” is that we have to realize that freedom is not just the privledge of doing whatever we please, it is a responsibility.(which it seems many of the commentors do not embrace) let’s bring this into the real world for a moment to get some perspective. Say the shopper in question was going down the local toy store, toys r us, KB TOY, whatever(searching “disney” in the market), and outside was a man directing a group in live sex acts(ala naked woman icons) to promote a line of pornographic videos and magazines(the “apps”). I hardly think that it would be apropriate to then simply claim “kids shouldnt be going to the store anyway…”. we would expect someone to do something about it, or to be able to do something ourselves.
1. relegating younger users to the iphone is stupid. frankly i have a hard time respecting any of the commentors who said “kids shouldnt have androids” and even less for those who suggested they stick to the iphone. for one thing, that is a HORRIBLE business strategy, raising them on the iphone would most likely make them loyal to the iphone. not to mention that their parents, not wanting to have to have 2 different carriers for their phone service will be with AT&T and perhaps you would like to go to the “phones” section of this site and show me which android mom and dad will be using with them…
2. as i stated before, freedom is a responsibility. when those who are excersising the benefit show they cant handle the responsibility, then those with the power to do so must limit the benefit to match that persons level of self control. this benefits EVERYONE. users who arent looking to be bombarded with crap arent, google and the carriers aren’t getting sued(the liability issue CA talked about), and the smut-junkies can still find their(<–this is possesive spelling of the word BTW, not there) next fix.
3 the responsibility of freedom falls on everyone. your freedom to shout vulgarities does not supercede my freedom to not have to hear it, and the responsibility is not mine to either plug my ears or stay locked in my house. it is YOUR responsibility to excercise that freedom in an apropriate place.(this is where we draw the corrollation between spaming games, and such with porn and going to a park and putting on an inapropriate display)
Yeah…I think that Google should put something in all android phones that allows your age to be known and if your under 18 you will be blocked.
I also think Google should come out with tech store that deals with android phones. And in these stores they should have an adult app sigh up this way no underagers can get passed the block…so well. It would be the safe-est way to do it if it happends…y0
Having a mostly-unrestricted adult category would actually help prevent android from becoming like apple. When you don’t have a place to put those apps and then end up with all of the other apps, that’s when people throw a fit and demand they be removed. If you give them their own category and allow parents to lock that category, then you preserve the sanctity of openness without pissing parents off. I don’t have any kids myself yet, but I would have a hard time justifying allowing my future kids to have android phones until there is either a lock of some kind or they are old enough to make those kinds of decisions themselves.
kids shouldnt be allowed!!
I’m surprised that Getjar isn’t mentioned in this article. I’ve been getting adult apps from then for some time now and recently obtained an Android phone which, not to any surprise, GetJar.com had plenty of quality Adult oriented applications.
If the market just had a way to filter, even by keywords, I’d be satisfied.
Everybody is responsible for their own actions. If somebody wants to download porn on their phone. So be it. Even if they are 12. We can’t shield our children from everything in the world. Especialy in these times when accessing internet is so easy.
I just want to filter out all the porny applications, most of the time I don’t want to see the porny stuff.
Android is going the right way about things instead of the dictatorship of Apple and Microsoft. If someone wants a porn application on there handset then should be allowed to have it. Remember mobiles should be personal to that person.
I currently have a Windows Mobile 6.5 device but recent articles are now stating that the Apps store for Windows 7 will be exactly the same as Apple.
The is one of the reasons I will be moving to Android on an HTC handset once my contract finishes even as much as I like my Windows 6.5 device.
I’m not totally clued up on the Apps store and how they work but surely these Apps stores which provide Adult Content Apps can work along with the Mobile Operators by the use of the Mobile Content Lock that these operators provide.
I currently work for a Mobile Porn site called Twisted Talent http://wap.twistedtalent.com if someone does not have content lock turned off then people cannot view this site. Surely this can be setup in the same way to work along with the Apps Store. We are also in the process of build an Android App to go with our mobile site which will look great.
I also must add what is the difference between having gambling apps and adult content apps, these are age restricted by age as well why is the big fuss always over porn. Porn is no longer the video hidden under your bed story, it’s big business and men and women alike enjoy it and as said previously above if someone wants it on there phone then they should have it.