Coming Up: Apple Is Adding An "Explicit" Category To The App Store (Update: It's Gone!)
Apple's policy shift concerning "titillating apps" last week generated quite a lot of discussions. The move has been harsh on developers who relied on the revenue from those apps, but let's face it, the vast majority of App Store users have actually enthusiastically welcomed this change.
With younger and younger kids using the App Store along with the upcoming launch of the iPad, which is also targeted at families and education, Apple is walking a thin line on what they can distribute or not. Their first move was to add a parental control option to iTunes, but it isn't perfect. While kids can't download some of those flagged apps anymore, they can still access the preview screenshots.
To face the issue, Apple has now apparently decided to ban most of the "sexual content" and create a new, separate "explicit" category. It's not live yet but developers can already file their apps in the category through iTunes Connect.
What does it mean? Well, in my opinion, Apple is not likely to re-allow the banned apps in there like some predict, instead, they will simply move all controversial apps (like Playboy) to a separate category, which can be then restricted with the parental control feature.
Right move Apple!
[via Cult Of Mac]
***Update
It seems like Apple is still making up its mind about this and as some of you noticed the category is no longer there.
A developer quoted by Gizmodo is claiming that Apple confirmed him the removal and that
while they are thinking about it, it's not going to happen anytime soon
We'll keep you posted.
