Could 'iPorn' be the new parental headache? Jeff Johnson - OneNewsNow - 7/31/2008 7:30:00 AM
Many parents know that children are getting their favorite songs from iTunes. But what else can the youngsters hear through the popular music-downloading site? How about porn?
Apple's iTunes software and the iPod have made the old-fashioned record store "so last century." And now podcasts – audio blogs and vlogs – have become all the rage.
But as Pat Trueman – former chief obscenity prosecutor for the Justice Department – explains, one can find more than cooking and legal advice in those podcasts. "What you're finding now is a couple of podcasts that are almost entirely sexually explicit with Apple saying that these are okay for now," he points out.
Trueman says hardcore sex movies or podcasts have not been permitted as of yet, but he wonders if that is next. According to Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, in a June interview with ABC, the answer to that question is "No."
However, Trueman believes parents should contact Apple now to voice their opinions, before someone convinces Jobs that "iPorn" could be profitable. "Go to Apple.com customer service and just suggest to them that they should keep iTunes clean," he suggests. "iTunes is where many children today get their music, get their movies, etc. So it's entirely open to children -- and Apple is mindful of that. We've got to get Apple convinced that it should monitor it very closely," Trueman argues.
Trueman notes that iTunes already allows songs with sexually explicit lyrics to be posted on the site.
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