Thursday, Jul 2, 2009    Text size: 

BeautyMeter operates like the site HotOrNot.com, where users rate photos of average males and females based on physical appearance.

According to reports, BeautyMeter’s policies before the incident stated: “We don’t review each uploaded photo exclusively but from time to time we will clean up. You can mark a photo as spam so the community is able to regulate among themselves material that they don't like."

An update to the policies, found on the app’s developer, FunnyMals.com’s site now reads “cause of inappropriate content upload we hardened our review process. As described in our terms and conditions, no nude content is allowed. For future uploads we will log the IP address to better prevent illegal use.”

Funny Mals webmaster Ralf told XBIZ he was shocked to learn of the inappropriate photo and understands Apple's termination of the app. He believes the image was uploaded before the company established its review process in March, he said.

"We determined the UUID [iPhone device ID that can be seen as a kind of network card ID] and we will hand out that UUID for further steps," Ralf said.

FunnyMals describes itself as “a startup in developing different applications on the iPhone mobile device.” Its other apps include WhoAmI, a child-friendly sound memory game and GeoPoints, a mapping app.

Apple clearly addressed its stance on pornography last week with a statement that said, “Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content, such as pornography. 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.”