Porn Continues to Plague iPhone Apps Store

July 2, 2009— -- Just one week after pulling an X-rated iPhone app offering photos of nude women, Apple has yet again found itself fighting off attempts to upload mobile porn.

An image of a teen girl, purported to be 15 years old who is topless and mostly bottomless appeared in the free app BeautyMeter, which lets users upload photos of themselves that are then rated by others, according to Wired magazine. The app is like an iPhone version of the rating site Hot or Not.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Wired said the app (including the same teen image) was still available in Apple's App store. But on Thursday, it appeared that Apple had removed it.

Funnymals, BeautyMeter's developer, and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABCNews.com.

But in a note dated July 2 on Funnymals' Web site, the developer said that because of " inappropriate content upload we hardened our review process so the release time can be higher since now. As described in our terms and conditions, NO nude content is allowed (bikini content is allowed)."

Another note on the site says, "We don't review each uploaded photo exclusively but from time to time we will clean up."

Last week, after photos of nude women started appearing in the app Hottest Girls, the blogosphere lit up in disbelief.

The application previously displayed photos of women in lingerie and bikinis. But about a week after Apple unveiled a new operating system that includes parental controls that could filter out explicit content, the developers took off what was left of the clothes on the women, and turned up the heat on their product's content.

Macenstein, a blog on all things Apple, wrote, "Today, the iTunes app store became a man." The tech site CNET took another tack: "Apple goes topless," it declared.

But by last Thursday, Apple had removed the app.

"Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content, such as pornography," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said. "The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content.

"This was a direct violation of the terms of the iPhone Developer Program. The application is no longer available on the App Store."

But these aren't the only applications that have run afoul of Apple's rules. Here are nine others that have crossed the company's line.

One of the most recent apps to grab headlines, the 99 cent Baby Shaker, was pulled from the App Store after it prompted outrage from organizations such as the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome and the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation.

The description of the app said, "See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!"

The program displays a black and white picture of a baby with the sound of crying. Users shake the iPhone to stop the crying until Xs appear on the eyes of the baby. The company behind the app, Sikalosoft, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Apple offered an apology soon after it appeared, the same day the App Store reached 1 billion downloads.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said the game was "deeply offensive" and should not have been approved for sale, according to The Associated Press.

"We sincerely apologize for this mistake," Kerris said in a statement.

Before Apple yanked this $999.99 iPhone and iPod Touch application from the App Store in August, eight people had purchased the functionless application.

Designed by German developer Armin Heinrich, the program did nothing but broadcast to the world the wealth of the owner. Once downloaded and activated, "I Am Rich" displayed a glowing, red "ruby" on the user's iPhone screen.

In its official App Store description, the developer wrote: "The red icon on your iPhone or iPod Touch always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this. ... It's a work of art with no hidden function at all."

According to tech blog Valleywag, one curious patron accidentally downloaded the application, thinking it was a joke. But it seems that seven others -- five in the United States, one in Germany and one in France -- meant to actually buy the pricey program.

Apple told him it was turned down because it didn't contain any user-accessible functionality, he said.

Macia said he adapted the app in March so that it's now an E-Book of P.T. Barnum's "Art of Money Getting." But he's still waiting for word from Apple.

"Their process -- why they approve stuff and why they don't -- is really a black-box type of thing," he told ABCNews.com.

Still, Apple's vague process has not stopped Macia from trying, and failing, again on another app. He learned in January that his game "Prohibition 2: Dope Wars" had also been rejected.

In the game, users pretend to be drug dealers in New York City trying to make as much money as possible in 30 days by trafficking illegal substances.

Macia said Apple rejected him because it violated the company's guidelines for developers.

In its Software Development Kit (SDK), it says that "Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple's reasonable judgment may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users."

But Macia told ABCnews.com that it's not like iTunes and the App Store don't contain any potentially offensive material. "The iTunes store has so many songs and movies about cocaine and killing people," he said.

And the number of farting applications easily exceeds 100, he added. "I find 137 farting applications objectionable," he said. "I find that a lot ruder than a game."

Macia went back to the drawing board, changed the name of the game to "Prohibition 1: Bootlegger," replaced the names of drugs with the names of alcohol and went back to Apple.

This time, the company approved it. Encouraged, Macia successfully submitted another game "Prohibition 3: Candy Wars," set in a future in which candy is illegal.

Since he'd scored with two games that were only cosmetically different from the original one that had been rejected, he tried once more. But, no such luck: It got the thumbs down again.

Apple told the developer it was "inappropriate sexual content," according to PCWorld.com.

But MGD Development Director John van der Burg said, "Watching an episode of Baywatch on TV shows a lot more than iBoobs. Besides that, iBoobs is just a 3-D model and not even real."

The developer behind "Slasher" was also told his app was out of line.

Created by Josef Wankerl of Austin, Texas, the app displays a kitchen knife on the screen and plays the "horror" sound when you make a stabbing motion with the phone or iPod Touch.

He said it appeared August 6 but was yanked August 7.

Apple told him it violated the part of the guidelines that objected to "obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content," he said.

"I have no problem with people objecting to 'Slasher.' After all, everyone has their own personal taste. I do have a problem with the App Store refusing to publish 'Slasher' because they don't like it," he wrote to ABCNews.com in an e-mail.

He also said it bothers him that other approved Apps could also be seen as obscene or offensive. "Bar Fight Bottle," for example, lets you pretend to smash a bottle with your phone and other apps serve as pretend pistols, shot guns and ray guns.

He said he improved the app and was told, upon resubmitting it, that it had been approved. But despite weeks of e-mails, the status still says "Removed from Sale."

"I thought there was a decent chance they would reject it but it was a chance I was willing to take," Vance told ABCNews.com. "I was disappointed."

He said Apple told him the app was defamatory. But Vance disagreed and decided to let the company's CEO know about it.

Surprisingly, Jobs wrote back: "Even though my personal political leanings are democratic, I think this app will be offensive to roughly half our customers. What's the point? Steve"

Vance wasn't entirely pleased with the company but was impressed by the CEO and took it as a good omen, he said.