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This may be a bad global political climate for the "Big tech is bad because they restrict my sex app to users 18 and older" take.

by Bratmon 11mo ago

Spivak 11mo ago
I didn't take that message away from the blog at all. They seem perfectly content to be an 18+ app but are musing on the fact that, functionality wise, it doesn't actually have any sexual content. Just the vague suggestion that you might choose to log that information in there. An IRL analogy is probably stores that are happy to let children shop in the vicinity of sexually suggestive items such as condoms, lube, and intimate apparel—you can get these at grocery stores even.
- mslt 11mo ago
  Seems like people should be of whatever age we consider mature before they start capturing intimate data about themselves on random platforms. If we don’t think you’re able to understand the risks of pursuing your reproductive impulses, do we think you can measure the risks of sharing data about those impulses on a platform you don’t control? Local data or not, if I were the steward of a marketplace I’d use that position to create this kind of teaching moment for pre-developed consumers. If young people had been warned since the mid 2000s of how much of their intimacy they were handing over to Meta, ByteDance, etc. before they started, the world would certainly be better off.
  - zahlman 11mo ago
    > Seems like people should be of whatever age we consider mature before they start capturing intimate data about themselves on random platforms How about we just don't do that capture at all?
    - mslt 11mo ago
      Agreed. But giving adults free will is a principle of the market, so if attempting to prevent the most vulnerable consumers is the best we can get from a compromise, I’m for it
- hapless 11mo ago
  It is, quite literally, a diary for your sexual activity Condoms, lubes, and intimate apparel are not threats to children. If you found children buying condoms, lubes, or intimate apparel at unusually high rates, that would be very alarming. But, normally, they are purchasing these products for very lazy adults. There is 0 use case for a person under the age of majority to use this application. It is only usable by a person being abused. Precisely 0 adults have charged children with the mission of f... blogging sexual activity.
  - jrflowers 11mo ago
    > If you found children buying condoms, lubes, or intimate apparel at unusually high rates, that would be very alarming. But, normally, they are purchasing these products for very lazy adults. “Children buying condoms or lube at unusually high rates” is a funny phrase because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a child buy either of those things. What is the threshold between usual and unusual for these purchases in hard terms?
    - hapless 11mo ago
      You've never seen a kid buy condoms because mom and dad are lazy? I aspire to your lifestyle ;) kids buy condoms for the same reasons kids used to buy cigarettes or beer. It would be super weird to see the same neighborhood kid buy condoms every week, but it's not particularly alarming on a one-time basis. Maybe I am just very old, and I should be alarmed by a one-time purchase. I am relating the basic guidelines from my own youth. It is plainly a bad idea by any standard to provide an application for teenagers to keep diaries of their sexual abuse.
      - jrflowers 11mo ago
        > You've never seen a kid buy condoms because mom and dad are lazy? Not that I can think of, and I’ve worked retail. I’m assuming that ‘lazy parents’ have been buying condoms and lube online for a long time now given the selection and price points available. Like you can get a hundred pack for ~$20 which is way cheaper than what you’d get at a gas station.
- windows_hater_7 11mo ago
  In all honesty, I think the front of a condom box which says "for contraception plus STI protection" is less sexually suggestive than an app that has a "Spice Library" where the user can tag activities with tags such as "Anal," "Oral," or "Intercourse."
  - Spivak 11mo ago
    How about a different angle then since you seem to be of the opinion that words related to sex can't be in the vicinity of children. Book stores. There aren't age ratings for books and a 8 year old is not only free to wander around by themselves near all the smut—from missionary to rape to drugged group sex with hockey boy dragon princes—but they would be allowed to buy them too. The only 'protection' from this happening is the fact that kids aren't actually interested in this kind of stuff. So it gets to the heart of what these age ratings are really for and what kind of things do we actually not want kids around. And it seems like the line is drawn at sexually explicit imagery. And so app stores in a way are kind of unique in that they apply age restrictions much more liberally than the wider world around them.
NetMageSCW 11mo ago
Should pen and paper be restricted to 18+?
- doubled112 11mo ago
  Your daughter's teacher could write her a handwritten note to stay after class. Won't anybody think of the children? /s in case.
- mslt 11mo ago
  Obviously not, pen and paper is the correct platform for a young person to document this type of data. Not sarcasm, kids should truly just write this shit down instead of using a weird app that’s not accountable to them in any way,
- windows_hater_7 11mo ago
  the epitome of the slippery slope fallacy.
- hapless 11mo ago
  Pen and paper are not restricted by Apple's "App Store."

This may be a bad global political climate for the "Big tech is bad because they restrict my sex app to users 18 and older" take.

by Bratmon 11mo ago

This may be a bad global political climate for the "Big tech is bad because they restrict my sex app to users 18 and older" take.

Spivak 11mo ago

I didn't take that message away from the blog at all. They seem perfectly content to be an 18+ app but are musing on the fact that, functionality wise, it doesn't actually have any sexual content. Just the vague suggestion that you might choose to log that information in there. An IRL analogy is probably stores that are happy to let children shop in the vicinity of sexually suggestive items such as condoms, lube, and intimate apparel—you can get these at grocery stores even.

mslt 11mo ago
Seems like people should be of whatever age we consider mature before they start capturing intimate data about themselves on random platforms. If we don’t think you’re able to understand the risks of pursuing your reproductive impulses, do we think you can measure the risks of sharing data about those impulses on a platform you don’t control? Local data or not, if I were the steward of a marketplace I’d use that position to create this kind of teaching moment for pre-developed consumers. If young people had been warned since the mid 2000s of how much of their intimacy they were handing over to Meta, ByteDance, etc. before they started, the world would certainly be better off.
- zahlman 11mo ago
  > Seems like people should be of whatever age we consider mature before they start capturing intimate data about themselves on random platforms How about we just don't do that capture at all?
  - mslt 11mo ago
    Agreed. But giving adults free will is a principle of the market, so if attempting to prevent the most vulnerable consumers is the best we can get from a compromise, I’m for it
hapless 11mo ago
It is, quite literally, a diary for your sexual activity Condoms, lubes, and intimate apparel are not threats to children. If you found children buying condoms, lubes, or intimate apparel at unusually high rates, that would be very alarming. But, normally, they are purchasing these products for very lazy adults. There is 0 use case for a person under the age of majority to use this application. It is only usable by a person being abused. Precisely 0 adults have charged children with the mission of f... blogging sexual activity.
- jrflowers 11mo ago
  > If you found children buying condoms, lubes, or intimate apparel at unusually high rates, that would be very alarming. But, normally, they are purchasing these products for very lazy adults. “Children buying condoms or lube at unusually high rates” is a funny phrase because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a child buy either of those things. What is the threshold between usual and unusual for these purchases in hard terms?
  - hapless 11mo ago
    You've never seen a kid buy condoms because mom and dad are lazy? I aspire to your lifestyle ;) kids buy condoms for the same reasons kids used to buy cigarettes or beer. It would be super weird to see the same neighborhood kid buy condoms every week, but it's not particularly alarming on a one-time basis. Maybe I am just very old, and I should be alarmed by a one-time purchase. I am relating the basic guidelines from my own youth. It is plainly a bad idea by any standard to provide an application for teenagers to keep diaries of their sexual abuse.
    - jrflowers 11mo ago
      > You've never seen a kid buy condoms because mom and dad are lazy? Not that I can think of, and I’ve worked retail. I’m assuming that ‘lazy parents’ have been buying condoms and lube online for a long time now given the selection and price points available. Like you can get a hundred pack for ~$20 which is way cheaper than what you’d get at a gas station.
windows_hater_7 11mo ago
In all honesty, I think the front of a condom box which says "for contraception plus STI protection" is less sexually suggestive than an app that has a "Spice Library" where the user can tag activities with tags such as "Anal," "Oral," or "Intercourse."
- Spivak 11mo ago
  How about a different angle then since you seem to be of the opinion that words related to sex can't be in the vicinity of children. Book stores. There aren't age ratings for books and a 8 year old is not only free to wander around by themselves near all the smut—from missionary to rape to drugged group sex with hockey boy dragon princes—but they would be allowed to buy them too. The only 'protection' from this happening is the fact that kids aren't actually interested in this kind of stuff. So it gets to the heart of what these age ratings are really for and what kind of things do we actually not want kids around. And it seems like the line is drawn at sexually explicit imagery. And so app stores in a way are kind of unique in that they apply age restrictions much more liberally than the wider world around them.

NetMageSCW 11mo ago

Should pen and paper be restricted to 18+?

doubled112 11mo ago
Your daughter's teacher could write her a handwritten note to stay after class. Won't anybody think of the children? /s in case.
mslt 11mo ago
Obviously not, pen and paper is the correct platform for a young person to document this type of data. Not sarcasm, kids should truly just write this shit down instead of using a weird app that’s not accountable to them in any way,
windows_hater_7 11mo ago
the epitome of the slippery slope fallacy.
hapless 11mo ago
Pen and paper are not restricted by Apple's "App Store."