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'Anti-Sexting' Technology Patented by Apple

By Jason Beahm on October 15, 2010 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Sexting has been a popular buzz word in the news this year. There are many reasons why: it's a trendy sounding word that has 'sex' in it. It's a controversial subject involving modern technology and sex. It frequently involves people getting caught up in scandals.

It may not be the healthiest aspect of our society, but we eat this stuff up. Fortunately, or unfortunately, a new technology patented by Apple could be used to prevent underage children from sexting. Parents could set up an administrator account that would then block the iPhone from sending or receiving explicit texts. Apple's new technology would also allow advanced filtering, including filtering by age.

CNN reports that Apple is also considering using the technology for education, citing a program where kids would have to send a certain number of messages each month in another language. Techcrunch notes that the problem Apple plans to solve is specified in the patent: "[there is currently] 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."

The next logical question: will this be the end of sexting? Techcrunch says "yes and no." The blog takes a fairly safe route in its analysis, saying that it will probably stop some people from sending explicit messages, but that other will find a creative way to work around the filter.

So in the end, is this likely to make that much of a difference? Potentially not, considering that: 1) parents will have to actually set up and control the filters, and 2) children are notoriously good at finding ways to work around technology. Nevertheless, Apple thinks that it has a good new technology on its hand and is ready to move forward.

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