Apple Patent for Text Message Censoring Technology Approved

Well, we already known that Apple is maybe one of the most anti-sexual content companies around, but it seems the tech giants have taken things to the next level by aiming at our text messages. A patent which was filed by Apple back in 2008 has just been approved which filters "text-based messages" based on "objectional content", in other words using naughty words in your texts (seemingly aimed at sexting).

Here's the background from the patent itself (which can be found here):

"This relates to text-based communication devices. The proliferation of computers and compact portable devices has led to vast amounts of text-based communication. One problem with text-based communications is that there is no way to monitor and control text communications to make them user appropriate. For example, users such as children may send or receive messages (intentionally or not) with parentally objectionable language. Also, because electronic text-based messaging often can be informal, some users may draft messages that are grammatically incorrect.

One way in which parental control can be accomplished is to limit the access points that a user can have. For example, a parent could prevent a child user from accessing specific websites, or limit the user to communicating electronically with a limited set of individuals or e-mail addresses. Such solutions, however, still do not address the content of the communications that the child user has with the permitted communicators.

One way that systems can be used to attempt to control the content that a user can view is to pass all of the communications through a dictionary which prevents a given set of words from being communicated. For example, many such dictionaries, if selected, typically prevent the user from sending or receiving curse words. One problem with this potential solution is that the dictionaries are often fixed. Another potential problem with such dictionaries is that they do not have the ability to prevent the use of non-standard forms of words from being communicated, such as those types of words that are often communicated via text messaging (such as, for example, text messaging "LOL" instead of typing out the full text of "lots of luck")."

Apple's reasoning behind this bizarre technology is then that "there is no way to monitor or control text communications to make them user appropriate. For example, users such as children may send or receive messages (intentionally or not) with parentally objectional language". So it's basically all to protect the children. Of course. Because sexting is such a massive problem for children which is definitely something which can be prevented if you attempt to block their naughty words in texts (give the generation who are growing up understanding technology as well as or better than their parents some credit). There are so many loopholes which can be used by someone unlucky enough to have their parents put this software on their phone that it feels almost pointless.

Anyway, regardless of how ridiculous this seems to me and how I'm pretty anti-censorship anyway, I have tried to find one good thing which such a service could offer so as not to be so biased and that would be that the service could be useful to protect children from text-bullying or harassment (to a certain extent anyway). Let us know what you think of Apple's measures against "objectional content" and if you would use such a service or not.

Via: Gizmodo