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Comment by FiveFiftyOne | Hacker News Reader

The problem here is two fold. Apple conduct a deliberate search for swear words and slang, find it, flag it to the developer, and bounce the app. Technorati goes mad, sets the blogosphere alight with vitriol and damns Apple to hell, scant months after worshipping the self-same company. Alternatively, Apple fail to conduct said search, pass the app, and someone's rosy cheeked darling is caught scanning naughty words on their iPhone. Consumer advocacy groups and parental groups set the blogosphere alight with vitriol and damns Apple to hell. The honeymoon for Apple is over. They fought, they gained market and mindshare, and now they find themselves in a position where their former fans wish to slay them, and they're high profile enough to piss off the non-techs who buy their tech. Will be watching the Apple hate with interest in the coming months, same as with the Google hate. How we do loathe a victor.

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So, who will you be cheering for in these Apple/Google vs. the people fights?

Personally in the Apple vs. the people fight, I'll be cheering for the people who decide that they can do a better job policing themselves and their children than Apple can. I know it's not easy, but it is a parent's job to prepare their children to live in the world as it actually is. That includes the vulgar, violent, and hateful things in the world.

"I know it's not easy, but it is a parent's job to prepare their children to live in the world as it actually is. That includes the vulgar, violent, and hateful things in the world."

<sarcasm>That must mean children growing up in war zones and neighborhoods with a lot of crime must be the best "prepared" children, and parents should try to emulate such environments for their children's benefit.</sarcasm>

That's not what I was implying. I was talking about the over-protective parents and adults who try so hard to shield their children from the bad things in the world (a noble idea), that they may unintentionally fail to prepare them for such encounters.

When this happens, who knows how these children will respond? We hope positively, but it could also be negatively or indifferently. Whatever it is, by this time, it's usually too late for a parent to provide meaningful advice.

Adults can still provide a positive, nurturing environment at home for their children and, at the same time, teach them about the right ways to handle unpleasant situations they may encounter in their lives. These "unpleasant situations" can occur in even the nicest of neighborhoods.

+1 for the sentiment, and because I am in agreement with the general principle. However, I can't find it in myself to cheer for either side. Apple will continue to make ham fisted attempts to self-police in an effort to mitigate one type of fallout, while embroiling themselves in completely different fallout. The nett result is going to be an ugly, mudslinging cluster fk in which no winner can, or will, emerge. Google is up the same creek, similarly lacking an adequate paddle. Blending corporate prerogatives and social responsibility / community perception is like mixing magnesium and water, a bright flash and a funny smell are all that get left over.

Retrospectively, this "content" flagging could apply to Mail, Safari, multimedia apps etc, so I guess my argument doesn't hold much water. I do maintain that the brouhaha and anger at Apple at the moment is interesting to behold. 'Scuse me while I return to panel beating FOSS from source onto my belligerent MacBook ;)

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