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My guess is that because it's possible to access adult material, Apple requires a higher age rating on the App Store than Discord would like. For instance, bot
by darklion 6y ago
My guess is that because it's possible to access adult material, Apple requires a higher age rating on the App Store than Discord would like.
For instance, both the Reddit and Apollo apps are rated 17+. There's nothing "adult" about them, except that it can access adult subreddits.
So by banning adult channels, Discord is likely looking to drop the age rating on their app. A 12+ or 9+ would be more appealing and potentially allow them a broader audience, especially when trying to target the teen crowd which may have parental filters enabled on their phones.
- nullspace 6y agoI think there's some misinformation in your replies about how this rating can be used. As a parent, you can add screen time restrictions to your child's phone that prevent them from accessing apps that are above a certain rating. This is a very powerful feature, that's really hard (impossible?) to bypass without social engineering. It's possible that discord is concerned enough with this so as to block out nsfw servers. Do they have a lot of teenagers on their platform?
- charia 6y agoDiscord has a huge userbase of pre-teen and teenage gamers, so your explanation makes sense here.
- koolba 6y agoI distinctly remember being able to find "adult content" at the age of 12. If I was 12 today I don't think Apple's iOS moderation would stop me either.
- YinglingLight 6y agoRemember when Tumblr dropped all adult content awhile back? We're going to find out how enmeshed our favorite sites are with sex trafficking. Child sex trafficking. There will be an upcoming pendulum shift towards puritanism of the likes our culture has never seen. HN'ers will start going to church, of all things.
- corobo 6y agoAye but it helps Apple's stock ticker to block it It's never about the actual thing haha. Americans (averaged and skewed by power) are really weird about sex
- CharlesW 6y ago> It's never about the actual thing haha. As a parent, it's 100% about the actual thing. Whatever the additional motivations are for Faceless Multinational Corporations to be thoughtful about it, I'm glad they are. Before the cries of "censorship", this is about kids not stumbling about NSFW/NSFL content before they're equipped (by parents, educators, etc.) to deal with it. When they want to find it, they will be able to.
- Cu3PO42 5y ago> this is about kids But it's not just kids who use Discord (and other platforms). If you're concerned about kids accidentally discovering adult content, by all means add a parental control setting somewhere that hides any NSFW content. Then everyone else who is of legal age and equipped to deal with such content can, if they wish to do so.
- nullspace 5y agoI think this was brought up somewhere in a sibling thread. It would be great to have a more granular content restrictions framework that allowed for exactly this. But how to do this in a reliable, verifiable way sounds like a real challenge.
- CharlesW 5y ago> If you're concerned about kids accidentally discovering adult content, by all means add a parental control setting somewhere that hides any NSFW content. For sure! And thank you for the response — I just realized I must've skimmed over this very important detail (emphasis mine): "Additionally, all users on the iOS platform (including those aged 18+) will be blocked from joining AND ACCESSING NSFW servers." Okay, that's stupid.
- 5y ago
- throwaway3699 6y agoIt looks better for parents, who probably will be monitoring.
- jhclouse 5y agoParents are generally both more worried than they should be and less equipped to act on their concerns than they need to be. In other words, it’s an annoying waste of time.
- cabernal 6y agoIt's more about liability than deterrence.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- EvilEy3 6y agoIt's not about stop. It's about showing that you tried. Do you think those "click yes if you're 18" are there to stop you? Nope, it's about protecting your ass in case some concerned patent starts complaining. Sort of like official "I swear she was 18, officer".
- seniorivn 5y agomore like "i swear she said she was 18"
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago... What are browsers rated?
- CivBase 6y agoLast I knew there was only one browser for iOS (Safari) which can neither be removed nor replaced, just reskinned. If that's still the case, it would be pointless to even give it a rating. EDIT: Getting downvoted. Is this incorrect?
- Cu3PO42 5y agoI haven't personally downvoted you, but I would assume it's for one of two reasons: 1) The distinction if browsers ship their own engine or just embed system provided WebKit is ultimately irrelevant to the question at hand. I can go on the App Store and download "Chrome" or "Firefox" and use those applications to access websites. 2) Browsers do have age ratings on the App Store. It's 17+.
- xkr 6y ago17+, which is quite ridiculous of course—Safari is pre-installed and allows you to see the same websites as Chrome or Firefox
- Spivak 6y agoNon-Safari browsers (apparently) don’t and can’t respect iOS parental controls so of course they would be 17+.
- sangeeth96 5y agoI know you said "can't" but just to confirm, is there no iOS API to get parental control info to block stuff like this? If not, I wonder why Apple doesn't provide that option. o/w, "Safari supports parental controls" argument is BS.
- 5y ago
- api 6y agoAre web browsers 17+?
- dylan604 6y agoBecause sometimes, people just need help answering simple questions: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-private-safe-browser/id989804926 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-private-safe-browser/i...
- grw_ 6y agoCouldn't they publish two versions of the app, a 12+ that cannot access NSFW servers and 17+ that does?
- chrisBob 6y agoIs there a reason not to split the app into SFW and full versions? I am surprised I haven't seen this in other places, but it seems like the right solution here.
- Cu3PO42 5y agoThere is: discoverability. If you search in the App Store you’re going to find those two versions and then they’ll have to prominently explain “this is the version of the app you can look at porn with” and “this is the kid-safe version”. They’d probably choose different wording, but that would be the message. And you don’t want to advertise adult content on your platform in any way, that just doesn’t end well.
- Mindwipe 5y agoIt's also highly questionable Apple would let a "full" version in the store tbh, as it's only purpose would be NSFW servers.
- callamdelaney 5y agoSo next apple will make safari 17+ because I could use it to acces pornographic content?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dcow 5y agoMaybe Apple needs a granular content rating framework that platform apps can apply internally rather than the rating being entirely an umbrella policy.
- amalcon 5y agoLegitimate question: Could Discord produce two apps, e.g. "Discord Safe" and "Discord Unsafe", where the only differences are the age rating and whether the NSFW switch can be flipped? Is there anything in the rules prohibiting this?
- anticensor 5y agoA third party could do that, but not the same provider.
- Ruthalas 5y agoCan you clarify what you mean here? Is that a store policy?
- anticensor 5y agoChildren would lie about their age and download NSFW-capable version awyway if both are first party.
- Dracophoenix 5y agoWould't that make internet browsers like Safari and Chrome 18+ as well? Or any content provider (Spotify, Netflix, iMessage, etc.) in general? If not, it seems like a double standard.