Apple's Problem with Bodies

[hcknwscommenter]

Very strange article. The author is very upset that an "intimacy tracker" might receive an 18+ rating on the app store. I mean yes, younger folks do it, but the vast majority of potential customers are 18+. Why is this an problem?

[valzevul]

Hi, OP here. Not sure what else to add beyond the first paragraph of the article:

> The rating itself is fine: the target audience is well past that age anyway. What baffles me is the logic.

I don't mind the 18+ label, even though it's up to the users what they use the app for, whether it's tracking sex, a partner's health, or personal wellbeing.

But I do find the history of age ratings and categories in the App Store and the limits they have to be quite hilarious, and figured I might as well write them down.

[normie3000]

Maybe I don't read good but I'm a bit confused by the article - it feels like it's avoiding describing what the Silk app actually is for. Is it a sex tracker? or for relationship emotions? or for both plus anything else you want? Or something else?

[thewebguyd]

Yeah, the author really tries everything to avoid calling it a sex tracker but the app store listing right now literally says "Sex, Partner Cycles, and Health"

I'm not sure what else they expected? 16+ seems appropriate to me. I can buy the argument for a need of additional categories, though.

[hapless]

It is an explicit sex tracker that does not restrict usage by children

You can imagine why Apple takes a dim view

[isodev]

I think you’re missing the point of the post. It’s not about that specific app. It’s how Apple approaches such topics without context and with extreme prudishness.

[Bratmon]

This may be a bad global political climate for the "Big tech is bad because they restrict my sex app to users 18 and older" take.

[Spivak]

I didn't take that message away from the blog at all. They seem perfectly content to be an 18+ app but are musing on the fact that, functionality wise, it doesn't actually have any sexual content. Just the vague suggestion that you might choose to log that information in there.

An IRL analogy is probably stores that are happy to let children shop in the vicinity of sexually suggestive items such as condoms, lube, and intimate apparel—you can get these at grocery stores even.

[NetMageSCW]

Should pen and paper be restricted to 18+?

[pentagrama]

So confusing to read. The author goes extremely deep into details and definitions for every side topic, yet stays vague and euphemistic about the main subject: the app. This is a web article, not something that needs to pass Apple’s review team.

[leobg]

I kept reading hoping to eventually learn whats the app actually does. But it’s one euphemism after the other, plus the occasional wink to “read between the lines”.

How can the author complain about Apple binning this app away in a weird niche if he as its maker doesn’t have the guts to plainly say what the app actually, really does?

[tjpnz]

>If you were around for the early App Store, you’ll remember its optimism: accelerometer-driven beer glasses, wobbling jelly icons, flashlight apps that set brightness to 100% because no one had ever considered the idea before. The ecosystem assumed “content” meant pictures, sound, or the occasional cow-milking simulator–not a user quietly describing part of their life to themselves.

I miss when tech was actually fun.

[contact9879]

Damn. What’s with all the personal attacks against the author in this comments section?

[isodev]

It’s such a well written (and factually correct) post, I don’t get the hate at all.

[thaneross]

American culture still holds puritanical views of sex, and this article crosses the taboo threshold that 15 year olds are having sex.

[nemothekid]

>And yet, from the App Store’s point of view, you can build a game with guns and cartoon violence and happily ship it to kids, while tracking your own body needs a 16+ “mature themes” label.

This really isn't an Apple problem, but an American culture problem. This is such a common trope in many forms of media:

* You can sell games with gratuitous amount of gore, but implied clothed intercourse gets you pulled from stores.

* You can get away with a lot of violence and possible sneak a PG-13 rating, but a single boob gets you rated R.

[hapless]

Well, no, because Apple categorizes all of these things separately. The world is not subject to MPAA notions about "Sex" or "Violence" -- rather, Apple splits those up into "does this app have any sex" or "does this app have any violence"

The author has a problem because what he is selling is an app to track sexual activity in explicit detail, which is a huge privacy invasion, and Apple's normal screens are rather good at noticing that

The author of this post is trying to sell an app that is not explicitly prohibited by Apple guidelines, but it is offensive to pretty much anyone who looks at it

[parpfish]

categorization difficulties aside... why does an app like this need to exist at all?

it seems like you can just use existing utilities. write your journal in notes. put stuff on a calendar if you want to track dates. if you're into making pie charts, make a spreadsheet.

[normie3000]

Why do we need any apps beyond excel and word?

[hapless]

I would have thought this app was targeted at people with unconventional lifestyles

Maybe people need a dedicated, mobile-ready spreadsheet to track sexual partners!

but this particular blog post makes me think they need a mobile spreadsheet to track their juvenile victims

[mcphage]

Lego gives their plant and flower kits an 18+ rating. Which is kinda silly, but I think mostly so people don’t unknowingly buy them as gifts for a kid who’d rather have a space ship or Harry Potter set.

[dr_kiszonka]

I quite enjoyed the writing style (despite a little wrinkle around context/contextual), but I am a bit disappointed that the article was so light on details.

[hapless]

it is light on details because the author wishes to invade your privacy in exchange for catering to your perversions

[moi2388]

If you don’t want to be classified as a sex app, don’t write a sex app.

I’m very glad children won’t get their sexual activities tracked by apps tyvm

[paulddraper]

> Silk–the app I’m talking about, almost reluctantly–is a wellbeing journal in the most boring sense possible.

Brother, the App Store listing is literally “Silk — Intimacy and Health Log.” Followed by the screenshots titled “Pleasure Patterns,” “Love Without Limits,” and “Spice Library.”

That is not — as you say — “a wellbeing journal in the most boring possible sense.”

[pythonic_hell]

Did anyone actually read the article?

The problem is clearly spelled out. Apples App Store policies make it incredibly hard to create apps that fall into the grey zone.

An intimacy/sex journaling app shouldn’t be something that’s near to impossible to find on the App Store if the person searching for it is a grown adult.

[adamwong246]

When you live under Apple's roof, you have to play their rules. But also- if you are tracking your partner's intimacy through an app, I think you might be doing it wrong.

[khazhoux]

How is he so confused? The app says, right in the subheading, that it’s a tracker for sex. Yeah, Apple doesn’t want to distribute an app for 13-year-olds to track if they fucked that week.

And the whole “but guns are ok??” thing is so tired. Yeah, we get it, Americans are prudes and in Europe nudity is no big deal and American cheese isn’t even cheese. We get it.

[adamwong246]

If little Jimmy is having anal sex after school, and then tracking it in an app, I think the app may be the least of your worries

[hapless]

I am pretty sure that raping children is a problem worldwide

Also, there is an entirely separate set of Apple content guidelines around firearms.

[panny]

This is why I chose Android over iOS a long long time ago. I bought the phone. It's my hardware. I should be able to run what I want on it.

[adamwong246]

Why is this downvoted? Is this not an accepted fact?

[jjbigs]

Odd article. In a round about way, the strong prejudice against the 16+ articulate by the author seems to be an endorsement of sex for early and pre teen youth. The author can paint whatever slant they choose calling it a "journaling" app it's inextricably tied to sex, downplaying that is disingenuous

[NetMageSCW]

That’s exactly what the article didn’t say.

[windows_hater_7]

This is almost as bad as the argument the other day about why OpenAI needs to store ChatGPT conversations.

[ggfdh]

> The platform will figure it out eventually.

I think that’s very unlikely for his app.

[isodev]

Loved the post. I think Apple has always been a little too prudish. This was fine when they were the smaller phone maker. Now today, both as a developer and a consumer you’re forced to consider Apple and their limits.

I remember when all dating apps had to move away from nudity without obscure hacks via the web. The entire conversation about sexual health and sexuality is now political and unfortunately for teens, their access to it is severely limited by old white prudish people who can’t even imagine a relationship with more than 2 people.

It’s never about protecting children though, that’s just a good buzzword they both Apple and politicians use that resonates with their audience without too much explanation. It gives a good feeling of effective policy even if it isn’t. It’s like “wokeness”, the “problem with immigration” and now … age verification.