Watch Online Apple has been awarded a patent - the Tuesday-approved US patent 7814163- which has been designed to block "sexting";

Apple awarded a patent that can block “sexting”
by Ethan Oliveira on Thu, 10/14/2010



According to a recent report on tech blog ReadWriteWeb, Apple has been awarded a patent - the Tuesday-approved US patent 7814163- which has been designed to block "sexting"; that is, the sending and receiving lewd, sexually-explicit text messages.

The yet-to-become-available technology will essentially allow the phone's administrator to block the iPhone from sending or receiving texts containing "objectionable material." As such, the technology underscores a parental control mechanism for the iPhone, to prevent children - especially those aged between 13 and 19 years - from sexting.
Contending that there presently is "no way to monitor and control text communications to make them user appropriate," the patent adds that Apple's system "can evaluate whether or not the communication contains approved text based on, for example, objective ratings criteria or a user's age or grade level, and, if authorized, prevents such text from being included in the text-based communication."

The patent, which was originally filed by Apple in 2008, is clearly in line with the company's traditional `family friendly' approach to its electronics; with the company having already banned all sexually-explicit apps from its iTunes App Store.
Talking about the ban on sexually-suggestive apps, Apple CEO said during an April press conference: "You know, there's a porn store for Android. You can download porn; your kids can download porn. That's a place we don't want to go -- so we're not going to go there."