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Comment by threevox | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone explain why all these sites seem to be cracking down on adult content? I don't get it. Adult content is the cherished underbelly of the web. If you want to find it, it shouldn't be up to a corporation to decide whether or not you can

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This is Apple's walled garden, not the web. Parents, and hence Apple, are OK with kids installing Discord so they can chat about Roblox, but they don't want them to stumble into that underbelly of furry scheisse porn etc.

What do you call a walled garden which you can't escape from because it keeps expanding to wherever you go?

a black hole

Not defending Apple at all here, but it's not too difficult to escape in this case: use Discord on a computer or an Android phone. The walls of the garden are around your iPhone, and the way to escape is to use something else.

So the options are pick a phone loaded with spyware or pick a phone that doesn’t let you look at adult content. Not a very comforting choice.

Yeah but that doesn't work when 90% of the kids are on iPhones and iPads.

Why do they allow Reddit with it's countless porn subreddits? Why do they allow Safari since it can be used to browse porn content (as well as Discord btw)?

It's completely hypocritical, and you and others must stop defending their stupid authoritarian and honestly abusive decisions.

I disagree with it (and don't use iOS), but I do see Apple's point of view.

And yes, I'm afraid Reddit is likely next on the firing line, and not just from Apple. To be honest I'm surprised porn on Reddit has lasted this long.

Probably the real reason would be to have mechanisms to block any content deemed unsuitable/politically unpalatable or whatever and NSFW is vague enough that you can block and let the issue blow over and then make it look like a genuine mistake was made. Also, hard for most people to bat for NSFW content because it makes you look like a pervert.

Both good points. I don't like the implications of the first but that probably means it's true

I always felt like the hardest position to uphold is "Anti-Kink-Shaming", A) it's embarrassing, B) there's some... questionable kinks out there, C) the amount of adhoms you'll get in response is absurd

NSFW is the catch all phrase paving the way for censorship

It's hardly a "crack down" in Apple's case. They've been at it for at least 10 years. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=621165

In this case the culprit is Apple.

Oh it's fine as long as people aren't making money off of it. As soon as people want advertising suddenly we are all supposeto be PG-13 puritans.

in a word, liability

For user-generated content, on a third-party instant-messaging app?

This morality crusade against nudity has lasted long enough. Let adults be adults.

in a word, liability.

"the cherished underbelly of the web"

So your answer is in your question.

Most people don't really want to deal with the 'cherished underbelly'.

Also, there's 'adult' and then there's stuff that goes way beyond that, that even freedom types would not want to be randomly confronted with, even if they reasoned for it's right to exist.

iOS is a Shopping Mall "No Porn Stores Here Please".

If this were a question of governmental or bans in the web, that would be a different kind of question entirely.

> iOS is a Shopping Mall "No Porn Stores Here Please".

Most shopping malls I go to don't block me from entering any malls that they don't own.

It astounds me how many people are willing to give Apple a free pass on this inexcusable behaviour. Microsoft got the crap sued out of them just for pre-installing IE on a bunch of computers, imagine if they also tried to make it impossible to install any competing browsers, and tried to claim that it was illegal to wipe the OS and install Linux instead!

Yes, if Apple allowed people to download apps that would change the narrative completely.

I'm not defending Apple's behaviour, I'm explaining it.

If we assume as a starting position that they want a 'closed universe' then their content policy is sensible, even if the 'closed universe' policy is not.

You're overlooking the fact that tons of people around the globe (in different jurisdictions) just label their content 18+ by default just in order to not be liable for anything that could be construed as "not for minors". And I really mean anything completely tame by most of civilized countries standards, let's say swearing or pixel blood.

Of course this isn't a great solution but if you don't create your content to cater to the mass market by default, but just to put it out there, it's suddenly not your problem anymore if anyone under 18 clicks through the "I am over 18" banner.

Yes, it's stupid but my point is - just because it's labeled NSFW this doesn't really mean there is anything that sensible adults would deem NSFW.

I'm not overlooking it, we all fully realize these things are complicated and nuanced, especially things like comments and speech.

Just because things are 'grey' doesn't mean we don't draw lines 'somewhere' and try to have a policy.

> iOS is a Shopping Mall "No Porn Stores Here Please".

That's fair. Where are the other shopping malls though?

Corporations fundamentally exist to make a profit.

A startup that cares only about growth at all costs doesn’t care too much about moderation. If it’s a tiny startup whose product isn’t very popular, they are free from any regulation.

Once the product gets popular, the startup morphs into a “regular” corporation and is now under all kinds of scrutiny to improve its image.

So any product that you use and like which gets really popular will suffer the same transformation as it becomes more mature and more adult.

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