Apple has just been awarded a patent for what people are already calling 'anti-sexting' software.
Kids these days and their cell phones -- you just never know what they're talking about with their friends. Fear not, Apple can help you! TechCrunch reports that the Cupertino, California-based company has just been awarded a patent for a "text-based communication control for personal communication device." The patent description claims that there is "no way to monitor and control text communications to make them user appropriate," and goes on to give children sending and receiving messages with objectionable language as an example.
"Users such as children may send or receive messages (intentionally or not) with parentally objectionable language," it reads.
The software would allow parents to implement parental controls that evaluate whether or not the message in question contains only approved words. If an unauthorized word is detected, it can be omitted from the message, and the application could alert the user or a designated third party to the presence of the unauthorized text. The application may require the user to replace the unauthorized text with words that are allowed, or it may automatically delete the offending words. A third option is that the application would just delete the entire message.
However, despite it being easy to assume that anti-porn Apple's main goal for this software is to help parents prevent kids from swearing or telling each other all about their naughty, hormone-induced urges, it seems the company is also aiming to improve language education.
The abstract for the filing says that although some incoming or outcoming messages could be blocked if they contain "forbidden content," parental controls also make it possible for the phone to require certain text be present in messages. The company goes on to give the example that you could require a certain number of Spanish words per day to be included in emails if your child is learning Spanish.
Check out full details of the patent here.
Source: TechCrunch
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The New Xbox 360 Dashboard Latest Apple News Approved: Apple's 'Anti-Sexting' Software Patent Apple 'Back to Mac' Event Hints at OS X... Soon Mac Users Can Sync Windows Phones Too FCC Cracking Down on Cellphone ''Bill... iPhone 4 Glass Breaking 82% More Than on 3GS Latest Apple reviews Apple Vs. Everyone Else: The Top 4 iPad Alternatives Apple iPod Retrospective Take Your iPad To College How To: Turn A Netbook Into A Hackintosh Will iTunes 10 Bring 10 Companies Down? Comments Read the comments on the forums Show comments: By defaultAllGood ratingsPoor ratings zerapio10/14/2010 4:51 AMHide-1+Can it return the message to the sender if it's written in ALL CAPS? If so sign me up!Lekko10/14/2010 4:55 AMHide-3+Considering how kids spell these days, that software is going to have to work really really hard to catch stuff.nukemaster10/14/2010 4:57 AMHide-2+Yay, now any phone company that wants to implement a filter will have to pay apple.keczapifrytki10/14/2010 5:07 AMHide-0+In other news, 11 year old kids know more swear words than their clueless parents regardless of the censorship imposed on their lives.eric_son10/14/2010 5:11 AMHide-1+I like the idea...However, I think this will just encourage the kids to invent their own language where the offending words are masked inside plain old non-offensive words.
zachary k10/14/2010 5:23 AMHide-0+Quote : "text-based communication control for personal communication device."
so that covers sex-based ascii art. wonder when they will move on to media file-based communication.BBS user10/14/2010 5:25 AMHide-0+How in the hell could Apple get a patent approved on this. There is prior art on text based keyword / bad language filtering from way back in the BBS text chat days. The US PTO doesn't have a clue and just doesn't do the research before approving these bogus patents. I guess Apple now gets to sue anyone who puts a bad language filter into their smart phone? jdevoy10/14/2010 5:29 AMHide-0+These big companies are just falling over themselves to patent every idea they can come up with, no matter how stupid or obvious...or with how much prior art.DEZigns33310/14/2010 5:32 AMHide-0+It's censoring software. It's not about sexting, it's for censoring conversations by government agencies like China and UAE.
But your mom can use it too.ccobrachoppergirl10/14/2010 5:38 AMHide-0+Yes, that's right, condition citizens to be censored from an early age. They'll be great subservient tools for the police state. As if they aren't already, ripped away from the family and schooled in slavery conditions to state mandated education. None of them had a vote as to whether they have to go to school or not, none of them get paid for a darn bit of work they do at school, and none of them have any free time with homework spilling into all the rest of their lives. Why let them have freedom of speach as well.frostyfireball10/14/2010 5:44 AMHide-0+This is rediculous and there better be a way to trun it off if it's ever implemented. Honestly, who wants this BS except overprotective parents and the likes of jobs. I don't want some software telling what i can or can't say.the_krasno10/14/2010 5:45 AMHide-0+Answer: use 1337 H4X0|2 M4D SKILZZZZ
People can always circumvent these sort of BS, teenagers are very crafty for the credit people give them. Comment:Submit my commentThis username already exists. Please choose another oneAlready registered e-mailAlready registered nickname with a different e-mailWrongly formed e-mail addressAn error has occuredPlease provide your username (required)Please provide your email address (required)Please enter a comment! Ads Ads Best offers Related Stories 10/13 – Approved: Apple's 'Anti-Sexting'... Newsletters Tom's Guide Weekly
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