Apple is continuing its war on sexxy content on your iPhone! The next victim: Text messages. A patent (filed in 2008) was just approved for "systems, devices, and methods" of filtering "text-based messages" based on "objectionable content." You know: Sexting.
Like all parents these days, you most likely have this problem, where your tweens are always sexting each other, on iPhones. Stop stressing out, mom! Apple is here to help! The same company that keeps blocking iPhone apps over stuff like illustrations of gay dudes making out can now help overbearing parents control their children's text messages and email.
Here's the text of the patent, via TechCrunch:
Systems, devices, and methods are provided for enabling a user to control the content of text-based messages sent to or received from an administered device. In some embodiments, a message will be blocked (incoming or outgoing) if the message includes forbidden content. In other embodiments, the objectionable content is removed from the message prior to transmission or as part of the receiving process. The content of such a message is controlled by filtering the message based on defined criteria. The criteria may be defined according to a parental control application. These techniques also may be used, in accordance with instructional embodiments, to require the administered devices to include certain text in messages. These embodiments might, for example, require that a certain number of Spanish words per day be included in e-mails for a child learning Spanish.
Luckily, since tweens are incredibly stupid and unmotivated, they'll never figure out ways to get around content-blocking, like using different words, or, say, picking up the phone and calling their sext-objects. Also: Is it just me or does that sound like the actual worst way to learn Spanish? To use a certain number of Spanish words per day in an email?