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Welcome to Engadget's Adult Week
None of us are in much of a rush to grow up. But, eventually, the day comes when you need to give up the slovenly ways of your college years and hard partying habits of your early 20s. It's time for you to become an adult. That means ditching the pajama pants and ratty band T-shirts for some big boy and big girl clothes. It means protecting your data from hackers and scammers. Oh, and it means making some pretty big life decisions -- like do you need to buy a car and whether you should post photos of your child on the internet. All this week Engadget will be bringing you stories about how to use technology to become a better grownup and how to navigate our tech-saturated world in a manner befitting a real deal adult. The web is a great resource for fashion advice and a solid place to start if you want to turn your deeply held political views into serious activism. It can also help you find love and companionship once hanging out at the bar until 4am loses its appeal. It's time to become an independent and constructive member of society. Check out all of Engadget's "Adult Week" coverage right here.
Increased encryption will help keep porn browsing private
Thanks to boosts in visibility when it comes to search and web browsers, you've probably noticed more websites (like Engadget) switching to HTTPS, which uses encryption to secure the connection between browser and server. Despite benefits to privacy and security most adult sites, even larger ones, haven't rolled it out across their domains, but the Washington Post points out there's a new industry push to change that.
Sky's adult broadband filters now on by default for new customers
Over the past year and a half, Sky has slowly rolled out adult broadband filters in a bid to help families "protect" younger members of the household from inappropriate content. A number of existing customers were the first to be asked whether they'd like to enable the company's "Broadband Shield," but as promised, those protections are rolling out to all new subscribers. As of today, Broadband Shield will be "automatically switched on the moment a new customer activates their Sky Broadband."
Sex is back at CES
For years CES shared the Las Vegas Convention Center with the Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE). But when AEE decided to reschedule its show in 2012, the biggest tech show on earth lost its adult edge. That is, until this year. Over the course of three days, I met with four companies showcasing sex-related products in and around the show.
PayPal, Square and big banking's war on the sex industry
For nearly a decade, PayPal, JPMorgan Chase, Visa/MasterCard, and now Square, have systematically denied or closed accounts of small businesses, artists and independent contractors whose business happens to be about sex. These payment processing authorities have also coerced websites to cease featuring sexual content under threat of service withdrawal, all while blaming ambiguous rules or pressure from one another.Monday a federal appeals court ruled that pressuring credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard to stop doing business with speech-protected websites violates their First Amendment rights. Specifically ones that feature content from sex workers. And in June, the FDIC clarified that it's against the rules for businesses like PayPal, Chase and Square to refuse business or close accounts based on "high risk" assessments related to human sexuality. But it may not be enough to stop what's become an entrenched pattern of systematic discrimination by payment processors -- one that disproportionately denies financial opportunities for women.
'Revenge porn' peddler banned from posting images without consent
If your significant other sends you artful nudes, it'd be pretty nasty to share those pics in the event of your separation. It's a feeling that the Federal Trade Commission shares after handing down a judgment on Craig Brittain, the owner of a website that many believe traded in revenge porn. Is Anybody Down was a site catering for user-submitted smut that, perhaps obviously, was believed to be used by jilted lovers trying to get one over on their exes. The site itself shuttered a while ago, but the FTC has now ruled that Brittain cannot publicly share photos of people online without their permission, and destroy any archives that he still has. Failure to comply with this will be met with a $16,000 fine for each and every individual violation.
Sky will soon switch on adult broadband filters for indecisive customers
As part of David Cameron's plan to protect young internet users, broadband providers have been forced to offer an "unavoidable choice." This impels new subscribers to decide whether they want to enable or disable blocks on adult content. However, UK consumers have already highlighted their dislike for such filters, with only one in every seven customers letting the big four UK ISPs guard them from porn and the darker parts of the internet. One of those major providers, Sky, saw just eight percent of customers enable the option before July 2013, but that statistic could change drastically as part of new measures announced today.
SexFit is a pedometer for your penis
It was only a matter of time before wearable technology moved from people's heads and wrists and ventured downstairs. British adult retailer Bondara is leading the charge, showing off a prototype activity tracker and sex toy that goes on the gentleman's region. The SexFit is a ring that sits at the base of the penis, trapping blood for better, uh, erections, but also packs an accelerometer and Bluetooth module. That way, your in-and-out statistics will be shared with a companion app on a smartphone that'll tell you your thrust per minute and even the calories you've burned. Oh, and you can even share those figures with your shocked friends on social media.
A piece about a smart pelvic floor exerciser, written by someone totally out of their depth
The quantified self movement is all about strapping gadgets to our bodies to tell us that we don't get enough exercise. The trend may have neglected certain parts of the body, which is something that adult toy manufacturer Minna Life wants to fix. At least, that's the idea behind the -- wait for it -- kGoal pelvic floor trainer. The hardware tells users how strong their pelvic floor muscles are, offering real-time feedback on strength as well as enabling people to track their performance.
UK government will unblock websites after adult filter blunder
Shortly after the UK government implemented a nationwide adult content filter, it transpired that it wasn't just naughty sites you couldn't access. Copyright blogs, relationship education sites and even women's crisis centers were all marked as being dangerous for family viewing. After much hand-wringing, the government has admitted the error, and is now working on a whitelist of sites that shouldn't be censored. At the same time, there are plans to develop an appeals system -- so that we can all go back to reading about James Earl Miles Jr. without fear.
Huawei runs David Cameron's preferred porn-filtering system, just FYI (updated)
Authorities in the UK have never had quite the same level of anxiety over Huawei that we've witnessed in the US, and they've so far been happy to let the Chinese firm get involved with numerous parts of the country's data infrastructure. As it turns out, the company's control even extends to the "Homesafe" filter used by internet service provider TalkTalk, which David Cameron recently praised during his push for tighter controls on adult content. The BBC discovered that UK-based Huawei employees are able to decide which sites are blocked on TalkTalk's service, and that even users who opt out of Homesafe have their internet usage data routed through Huawei's system. Whether or not this is an issue depends entirely on how much you trust reports of close ties between Huawei and the Chinese government, versus Huawei's claim that these concerns are based on anti-Chinese prejudice rather than evidence. From a purely practical point of view, however, if the mission is to block off huge swathes of the internet, why wouldn't you hire an expert? Update: A representative of Huawei has been in touch to provide the company's side of the story. He said that Huawei doesn't "run" the Homesafe system, but that the system is "supported by Huawei" without Huawei having control over it. He added that Huawei does not decide which sites are blocked, and that the final decision as to what filters are implemented rests with TalkTalk. Meanwhile, the BBC is apparently standing by its story, since it has issued no retraction.
UK government to activate adult content filters by default
In a speech later today, David Cameron will announce that, by the end of this year, all new UK broadband accounts will have adult content filters activated by default. Such restrictions will only be removed if the account-holder specifically requests it. Meanwhile, around 20 million users already connected will be presented with an "unavoidable decision" concerning adult content, and public WiFi providers must advertise if they utilize filters or not. Cameron also wants to outlaw "extreme pornography," unify police forces' regional databases and request that the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center draws up a "blacklist" of search terms to prevent people from searching for outlawed images online. Legislation will be introduced towards the end of the year to codify the changes, and ISPs not considered to be doing enough will be forced into action.
Saints Row IV banned in Australia due to 'unjustified' evil
For every tearful accountant at Saints Row HQ, there must be a gleeful marketing person punching the air, playing mini golf and doing whatever else marketing people do when they're full of glee. Conflicted emotions aside, however, game publisher Deep Silver can now claim the notorious distinction of having its latest title, Saints Row IV, rejected outright by the Australian Classification Board (ACB). It's the first such refusal since the ACB implemented a new R18+ rating, which is meant to allow for adult themes within games but which evidently couldn't cope with Saints Row's peculiar depictions of sexual violence (which were "not justified by context") or its drug-themed reward system (which is "prohibited by the computer games guidelines"). According to The Guardian, this effectively means Saints Row IV is banned from sale in retail stores in Australia, but Joystiq has received word from Deep Silver saying it intends to create a "reworked" version of its open-world game specifically for that country. Meanwhile, the regular version has been given PEGI 18 and ESRB M ratings elsewhere, and it looks to be on track for an August release date.
Comixology claims responsibility for banning Saga #12, rescinds ban
Yesterday, we posted about Apple reportedly banning issue 12 of a comic book called Saga, due to a couple of graphic sex scenes included in it. The book's creator, Brian K. Vaughan, had posted that Apple wasn't allowing his book to be sold on the App Store, though it was available through a number of other channels. But today it turns out that Apple isn't to blame -- instead, the book's digital publisher, Comixology, has confessed that they made the decision not to sell the book. Comixology runs the very popular Comics app on iOS, and they publish the digital versions of books from a number of different publishers, including Image Comics, who publishes the Saga series. The company's CEO, David Steinberger, has posted on the company blog that Comixology made its own decision to not publish the book, based on its assumption of Apple's policies. Of course, after the news yesterday, Apple says it would not have a problem with the book being published in Comixology's app, and Steinberger says the issue will be available soon, and apologizes to Vaughan and Image Comics for the confusion. So there's both good news and bad news here. The good news is that this decision did not come from Apple -- instead, it was Comixology that jumped the gun and decided to not publish the book on the App Store. But the bad news is that while Comixology did make the mistake, I can't really blame them for being concerned about Apple's retribution. Just yesterday, the company did threaten an App Store developer with removal over some adult content, and we've seen examples before of Apple being overly concerned about content that was already labeled for users 17-plus. That's why we here at TUAW jumped on this story and took the comic's creator, Vaughan, at his word -- because it's not hard to believe, given Apple's unclear and inconsistent polices on this matter, that they would have a problem with this book. Fortunately, they don't, and all credit to them for confirming that. Macworld followed up with Apple to confirm the supposed ban, and in hindsight, we should have done the same. But as long as Apple's policies and their enforcement on what's OK and not OK for the App Store remain unclear, we may see more issues like this pop up, either driven by developers dependent on the App Store for revenue, or by Apple itself.
Apple bans Brian K. Vaughn's Saga #12 comic book due to graphic sex scenes [Updated]
Update: It turns out this is not true -- the ban came from the book's digital publisher, Comixology, not Apple itself. Comixology has since rescinded the ban. Original Post: I never thought I'd write two stories in one day about Apple attacking the comic book industry over adult content, but that's indeed what's happening today. The latest controversy comes from writer Brian K. Vaughn, who writes a terrific series called Saga. The just-released issue number 12 of the book contains "two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex," according to Vaughn in a press release, and as a result, Apple has officially banned it from the App Store, commanding various comic publishers to not carry the book digitally for sale on the iPhone or iPad. Vaughn says he could have considered changing the images, but "everything we put into the book is there to advance our story, not (just) to shock or titillate," so the material is staying in. In the meantime, he says, you can find the book at any brick-and-mortar comic book store, on Image Comics' website outside of Apple's marketplace, or even (and here's the real laugher) in Apple's iBookstore, where apparently the company is less lenient than it is for third-party publishers. Obviously, these images and this book aren't appropriate for children, so it makes sense to be cautious about how the images are shown. But Saga is hardly pornography -- it's an excellent, well-written and insightful piece of art. Apple's censorship on this is at least more timely than some of its other attacks on "adult" material, but still, the fact that Apple is trying to block specific content from its store for arbitrary reasons is disturbing.
Digital comic publisher threatened by Apple over adult content
Digital comics publisher Izneo has pulled much of its content from its App Store app, after being cautioned by Apple about selling adult content on the iPad. Izneo has been on the App Store since 2010, but Apple only recently reached out to the company, saying that it had just 30 hours to remove all "adult" comics. Apple didn't identify the offending titles, so Izneo first pulled over half of its content, and then restored some of the (apparently) less-explicit content later. Still, about 1,500 titles are still absent. Prohibiting pornography on the App Store is reasonable, but Izneo has been selling comics (mostly French and Belgian titles) for years there now. Obviously that content was only part of a much larger collection. It's a little disturbing that Apple elected to censor content that's clearly labeled as being for adults (the app is marked for ages 17+) in such a vague, arbitrary fashion. Izneo is obviously working to stay on the App Store rather than challenge Apple in its own domain, but this seems like this could have been handled differently. [via TechDirt]
League of Legends developer wins another porn domain case
Riot Games has finished up another legal dispute regarding a website domain name related to its popular League of Legends title. LeagueofLegends.co was previously awarded to the company by the World Intellectual Property Organization from the clutches of a domain squatter, and now LeagueofLegendsPorn.com has been reclaimed by Riot for its own use. The case actually closed in late September, but the ruling came online earlier this week.Those looking for some racy pics of Miss Fortune or Akali getting it on, however, will be disappointed: The site never actually hosted any adult material, and now that Riot owns it, probably never will. But Riot is slowly securing its various domain name holdings online, making it easier for the company to connect players up to big company events like the recent World Championships in LA.
Kinect has no qualms about guessing a woman's age
Did you know that Microsoft's Kinect can measure your bodily proportions in 3D and hence ontogenetically estimate your age? Well grandma, it can. Aside from being incredibly impolite, a recent patent application from Redmond also highlights a more beneficial function: to prevent kids from watching or playing age-restricted media. The proposed system could even shut down inappropriate material automatically when an offending minor steps in the room and then resume it when they leave. On the other hand, we give it five minutes before some scheming rugrat with a distorting lens tweets a workaround.
ICANN's .XXX domain names have arrived, Frankie says relax
Let's try to be sensible about this. When one or more persons love each other very much -- no, erm, let's start again. The controversial move to segregate websites of an adult nature to the .XXX domain has begun. The process is staggered across three months to ensure nothing untoward can happen. On September 7th, the 50-day "Sunrise A & B" programs began, Sunrise A is where adult website and trademark holders can claim their domains as the legitimate owner; At the same time, Sunrise B lets non-adult websites like The Weather Channel claim their domain names to prevent it being used for a very different sort of forecast. There will then be an 18-day Land Rush period, where non-trademarked sites can register and conflicts are resolved with auctions. By December 6th, registration opens to everyone -- just in time for XXXMas.
