Google Says "No" to Google Glass Porn Apps

[Steven Bogos]

Google Says "No" to Google Glass Porn Apps

"T**s and Glass," The first Google Glass porn app, was banned literally hours after it launched.

Google is being very careful about the type of content that will be available on its revolutionary new platform: Google Glass. First, it made its stance on facial recognition apps very clear [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124579-Google-Bans-Facial-Recognition-Apps-on-Glass] and now, it has dropped the hammer on pornographic apps, banning the first Google Glass porn app literally hours after it was released, and altering its Developer Policy to prevent any more from popping up.

The app, appropriately titled: "T**s and Glass", is produced by porn company Mikandi, which calls itself the world's top app store for porn. The app was designed to make "authentic porn" by allowing users to create, upload, and share photos taken with Google Glass.

Google was apparently so unimpressed with the app that it issued the following addition to its Glass Platform Developer Policies after pulling the app:

"Sexually Explicit Material: We don't allow Glassware content that contains nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material. Google has a zero-tolerance policy against child pornography. If we become aware of content with child pornography, we will report it to the appropriate authorities and delete the Google Accounts of those involved with the distribution."

Bizarrely enough, Mikandi is not deterred by this change, stating that it would simply alter its app to fit in with the new policy. How a porn app can function without "nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material" is anyone's guess. Jesse Adams, CEO of Mikandai, also complained that Google gave no prior warning that the app would be pulled, or that the developer policies would change.

This move makes it very clear that Google does not want Google Glass to turn into a personal porn device, but i'm sure once people figure out how to root the device (no pun intended, fellow Australians), the unofficial porn apps will flow freely.

Source & Image: Venture Beat [http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/03/google-bans-porn-apps-literally-hours-after-tits-and-glass-app-launches/]

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[Mr Cwtchy]

Is it just me or is the whole thing about child pornography completely disconnected from the first part?

 

[Steven Bogos]

Is it just me or is the whole thing about child pornography completely disconnected from the first part?

I think they just wanted to make themselves especially clear. Maybe some child porn apps popped up somewhere else in development and they got in trouble for it?

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

Is it just me or is the whole thing about child pornography completely disconnected from the first part?

I think they just wanted to make themselves especially clear. Maybe some child porn apps popped up somewhere else in development and they got in trouble for it?

Well you'd have to be an especially dumb person to release a child porn app on Glass and expect nobody to care.

Just seemed kinda weird to me for them to just shove it on the end of that rule, is all.

 

[Candidus]

Google says no to... This
Google says no to... That
Google says no to... The other

I see they're learning a lot at their branch in China.

Never heard of Glass, don't have any intention of using it. Especially not if it's as `white-picket-fences-and-polkadot-dresses` neurotically "clean" as it seems. Fuck Google and its censorship.

 

[1337mokro]

Well there goes any potential these things had. Flushed 96.765% straight down the toilet didn't you google. Nobody wants to look like a fucking retard with these glasses on in the first place and rather than drawing in people with the prospect of watching porn on the inside of your glasses you decide not to do it.

Brilliant! It's like a drug dealer who refuses to sell the hard stuff.

 

[Doom972]

No porn on Google Glass? That defeats the entire purpose of it!

Is it just me or is the whole thing about child pornography completely disconnected from the first part?

People who don't like porn don't really have anything reasonable to say against it so they pull the child porn excuse out of their ass.

 

[Abomination]

No porn on Google Glass? That defeats the entire purpose of it!

Is it just me or is the whole thing about child pornography completely disconnected from the first part?

People who don't like porn don't really have anything reasonable to say against it so they pull the child porn excuse out of their ass.

It's the most extreme application of slippery slope I've seen this year.

It's also a given... Might as well have made a law that "you can not murder" then adding "you also can not murder children" as though people would have thought in the first place that not being allowed to murder didn't extend to children.

From the headline all I could think was "Google says "No" to billions and billions of dollars".

 

[SpAc3man]

Meh. If that's not the direction they want their product going in then fair enough. If someone wants that sort of thing on their device they can root it and install an unofficial app.

There will be plenty of custom ROMs just like for phones. It does run Android after all.

 

[Oskuro]

So, if I'm not mistaken, the glass thingie can take pictures. And you expect people to not take dirty pictures of themselves or others? Way to fail at understanding human nature there.


On the other hand, as with the facial recognition thing, I can understand Google being wary of apps that "pornify" unwiling people. It's one thing for people to undress each other in their minds, it's another for an App to create an actual representation of said undressing without content.

I know that's possibly not what the app was about, I'm mainly guessing here, but I bet that was exactly Google's train of thought:

App that makes porn out of pics -> People on the street unwittingly pornified -> Children

Can't say there isn't some reason to worry.

 

[Gilhelmi]

"No prior warning"?

It was in their policy to begin with. It said (compressed for time) No Porn, then pulled your Porn app. [sarcasm]shocking[/sarcasm]

Next article, "Cities ban Google Glass in public Restrooms". I will even petition my state government to do that. There might already be a law against cameras in restrooms. I am going to look into that.

 

[octafish]

He he he "Root" he he he. God I love that word. From the classic Australian pick up line "Have you ever tripped over a stick? ...How about a root?" to the Puberty Blues classic "How do I look?" "Rootable" that simple little word keeps giving joy.

Captcha: leave britney alone... can you say root-rat?

 

[CriticalMiss]

No porn = doomed to fail. Then again, hipsters wear stupid glasses so maybe they will buy them 'ironically' to fit in with other hipsters. Or whatever it is they do these days.

I'm still not sure what the hell Google Glass is supposed to do besides cost money.

 

[Sean Kay]

No porn = doomed to fail. Then again, hipsters wear stupid glasses so maybe they will buy them 'ironically' to fit in with other hipsters. Or whatever it is they do these days.

I'm still not sure what the hell Google Glass is supposed to do besides cost money.

I believe the idea was to test if hipsters would spend hundreds of pounds on looking like they keep up with tech even if the product didn't have the Apple logo on it. So far the experiment seems a success
Got to say, this seems really dumb. Like it or not products succeed if they are backed by the porn market, and its not like your partner wouldn't realise you were wearing your glasses and filming it

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Isn't the thing open source anyway? I doubt removing it from their official app distribution network will do a bloody thing.

 

[Petromir]

I'm not surr I saw the point of porn on them anyway, make what you are viewing clandestine is all very well, but having a wank in public is still illegal, and how the fuck was Google glass going to hide that.

They also haven't banned porn on them anyway, just specific porn apps. If only there was a way to to access the internet on them......

There are a number of uses I could think of for them, (mostly AR related things, keeping up with sports scores while I'm otherwise busy, checking on incoming caller ID without having to memorize hundred of unique ringtones) I did think of porn but decided that it most served as a way to get arrested.....

Plus it's android, so if you really must get your jollies on a train full of people it you can always get an unoffical app on.....

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Yeah, this isn't gonna change anything. Porn always prevails.

 

[nevarran]

There will be some ultra realistic app that involves killing and disembowelment, blood and gore. But tits... no, NO, NOPE, tits are bad!
Besides, we'll soon have Oculus Rift

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

The only thing I can say is that if you are actually paying ANYTHING for porn, you are doing it wrong. Its a multi billion $ industry, which always confused me. I mean anyone can create and freely distribute their own porn. And everyone else's porn.

You may as well tell me that boiling water is a billion $ industry. Sure anyone can do it, but some are more watchable than others and so they get paid to do it. And if the internet didn't exist I might just believe you.

Some of you will now go to youtube and search for vids of hotties boiling water. You know who you are.

 

[Legion]

"No prior warning"?

It was in their policy to begin with. It said (compressed for time) No Porn, then pulled your Porn app. [sarcasm]shocking[/sarcasm]

That is what I was wondering, as I couldn't imagine them not including it in the first place. Especially considering that the idea for the glasses to be used in regards to pornography was pretty much jokingly mentioned by everybody when they were first announced.