Why does Apple think it is suitable to make these decisions on your behalf, iDevice users? Are you happy with this?
Personally, I'll be sticking with my HTC device running Cyanogenmod.
* We have lots of kids downloading lots of apps, and parental controls don't work unless the parents set them up (many don't). So know that we're keeping an eye out for the kids.
* We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, "I'll know it when I see it". And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.
* This is a living document, and new apps presenting new questions may result in new rules at any time. Perhaps your app will trigger this.
* Lastly, we love this stuff too, and honor what you do. We're really trying our best to create the best platform in the world for you to express your talents and make a living too. If it sounds like we're control freaks, well, maybe it's because we're so committed to our users and making sure they have a quality experience with our products. Just like almost all of you are too.
Of the "iOS' walled garden is anticonsumer" concerns - the one that's in regular demonstration is Apple's refusal to allow adults to indicate that they really are grown up enough to be exposed to content regarding politics, religion, war and, yeah, even sex.
This is still the problem. You don't know whether the kid or the parent opened the box and set the phone up the first time.
While I know some people at HN would still be mad if the App Store defaulted to "kid safe," it's a fix with much smaller side-effects than outright bans. Assuming "to protect the kids" is really the motive.
Yes, this parent has problems. And it's this situation that Apple thinks they're watching out for.
Oh wait, this already "happens". The phones come with webbrowsers.
I really don't understand what problem Apple is trying to solve.
Allowing the web is PR-defensible: "it's the web". But when it comes to things you explicitly review and choose to allow in your store, you're forced to either stand up for adults' right to that content, or you preemptively censor yourself and your suppliers. (a la Walmart)
Why can't adults opt in to seeing adult apps?
There are literally hundreds of millions of non-iDevice smartphone users who don't live with these restrictions and who are not being harmed at all. Is there something special about iDevice users that means they need extra protection? Of course not.
And this is a different problem that also needs to solved.
People jumping into credit late in life as an adult without any teachings on how to properly manage their financials is the greater problem here.
If you had a credit card before 18, that means you were added on your parents account as an authorized user and you were piggybacking off of their credit history.
The greater problem here is that credit cards exist in the first place.
Perhaps in the recent age of debit cards, but credit cards filled a massive void in the usability of cash. And it is often still more convenient to manage your money transfers after the fact.
I just don't get the negativity. They're a great tool when used appropriately. You can't really fault the tool if people use it inappropriately.
1. It's like having a proxy between your actual accounts and your purchasing. A stolen credit card is annoying and easy to rectify. A stolen debit card is terrifying.
2. Sometimes in life, an expense arises that exceeds both income and savings. When this happens, we either pay with credit (of some kind), we don't meet our financial responsibilities, or we go without. Sometimes the best option is to go without. When that is not possible, the credit card is a good answer. Pay off your balance responsibly and as quickly as possible and either save more in the future or be prepared to pay interest again.
If "parents don't bother enabling parental controls" was an actual excuse, they couldn't ship a web browser!
The last point is probably why a lot of parents buy iPhones for their children.
As for the app in question, I find nothing objectionable about it, im sure the same information is available through Safari, but i suppose the same argument applies to adults wanting to see this content, stop whining about not having an app to do it and just look it up online.
I can think of at least one way to make it difficult for a kid to opt-in (I'm sure there are others): require the opt-in to be done online and require re-authorizing the credit card associated with the iTunes account. If it's good enough to get an email account out of a COPPA jail, it's good enough here.
Because Apple made the iPhone and they own the iOS store and they decided they could make more money with it this way.
"There are literally hundreds of millions of non-iDevice smartphone users who don't live with these restrictions and who are not being harmed at all. "
This is called assuming your conclusion. There are certainly standards at Google Play and Amazon's Android app store, not every Android user can sideload apps and the idea that no one has been harmed by uncurated stores is strictly false in general and in specific cases like this basically unknowable.
That's a statement of fact, but does not answer the question of why.
Sources: 1. http://www.sync-blog.com/sync/2012/04/how-old-do-you-look-fa...
1st* You need an Apple ID with a credit card to use the App Store. Ergo, adult work. Ergo, parental controls can be integrated into the credit card screen by the simple checkbox "Is the user of this account an adult?"
2nd* Supreme Court Justice is given the authority by the state to decide on immense matters after years of honorable (which is their title, by the way) service. Nice attempt at equating that with an app review team, whose job, according to an Apple employee, is to look "at things that may or may not be dcks all day long."
3rd Blabla.
4th* More blabla with qualifiers to look like one of us.
I'm pretty sure you don't, at least beyond the first-time setup of the account. My son has an iTunes account and we "fund" it through iTunes gift cards. There is no credit card attached at all. Once his gift card credit is used up, no more purchases for him.
"Protecting the children" is always the scoundrel's excuse for pushing censorship and control over the line of a sensible balance.
Presumably they think they will make more money by excluding those apps for now.
"Why does Apple think it is suitable to make these decisions on your behalf, iDevice users?"
Because that's the way stores work. The owner of the store decides what goods to sell in his store. A clothes designer has no guarantees that Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom's or Macy's or Walmart will carry any or all of their products.
"Are you happy with this?"
I'm happy the iOS app store is curated, yes.