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Comment by mrweasel | Hacker News Reader

I'm still not entirely sure why Apple cares about porn, they have people credit card information, that should be sufficient for age verification, in most cases. Gambling may provide Apple with some legal issues in most countries.

It's clearly a large market, and with 30% percent cut of subscriptions, it could be a lucrative business for Apple.

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They like to tightly control the message with regards to their brand, and that's one of clean, white, bleached happiness.

This stance has also hurt them with original content. A lot of great original content on other networks has had graphic violence or nudity, and they've stayed away, instead pushing bland shows that nobody seems to care about.

Maybe that'll change. But I'm not holding my breath, because I think this is a core value coming straight from Tim Cook.

I think it's a little too early to definitively say that Apple's forthcoming video streaming service only has "bland shows that nobody seems to care about," given that we haven't actually seen any of those shows yet. (Remember, "Carpool Karaoke" and "Planet of the Apps" predate this planned service and the hiring of ex-Sony execs to oversee it.) There are conflicting reports about whether that service will allow over PG-13 content, and if it doesn't, then sure, that's potentially a problem -- it limits what creators are going to be able to do, which in turn may limit the creators you can attract. But given that 18 of the top 20 box office hits of 2018 were PG or PG-13, it's pretty clear you can make content that people care strongly about within those limitations.

But do enough people want to subscribe to a service that doesn't have any edgy content? (No drug use, no graphic violence, no sex, no political documentaries).

Well, two responses come to mind.

First, a bit flippantly: I bet Disney's services are going to do just fine. :)

Second, less flippantly: I'm not sure we should conflate "no R/X/MA material" with "nothing edgy," nor should we necessarily conflate "edgy" with "interesting." And, again, we don't really know what limits Apple has put on creators for this service; they have some pretty big names lined up in terms of writers, directors, stars, and properties. It's certainly true that a fair amount of what they're producing sounds explicitly family-friendly, but being able to say "we have original programming created for us by Sesame Workshop, Peanuts Worldwide, and Oprah Winfrey" seems like it could carry some weight. (And I'm personally interested in several of the more adult-sounding science fiction shows.)

It's all about the Apple brand. The average consumer conflates iOS apps with Apple and Apple does not want even remote association with vice related content.

> The average consumer conflates iOS apps with Apple

More then 1 person assumed I worked for Apple when I told them I was developing iOS apps; so you are totally right!

You cannot determine someone's age by the fact that they have/use a credit card. Teenagers can have credit cards.

> Teenagers can have credit cards.

Someone who is at least 18 may have a credit card, but not younger. Someone under 18 can be issued a debit card (with some constraints about account type and needing a parent on the account), but not a credit card in their name.

> I'm still not entirely sure why Apple cares about porn

FOSTA and SESTA.

And before 2018?

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