iPhone Pornography And Pirate Apps

I was reading yesterday about the first iPhone worm being released into the wild in Australia. It’s not a malicious worm, well unless you think that having your phone’s wallpaper changed to a picture of Rick Astley is malicious.

Apparently the programmer created the worm as a proof of concept (whatever!). And it only works on phones that have been altered to allow the users to run non-Apple-approved apps. Oh, yes, and if they haven’t changed their passwords.

Of course not changing your password is just silly, but what made my ears prick up was the bit about approved apps for the iPhone. Not having an iPhone, Apple’s stranglehold on apps for the mobile device doesn’t actually bother me that much, except as a point of principle.

Security I can understand, yet a robust operating system with users who take password security seriously should be enough to ensure that malicious code doesn’t get a look in – yes, I know, Microsoft LOL.

But Apple’s patriarchal approach to approvals really leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. Who are they to decide what people use an iPhone for. If you’ve paid your money to Apple then why shouldn’t you choose to run whatever you like on it? There have been a number of cases where Apple seem to have been making moral judgements over apps and Apple has a total moratorium on adult apps.

Why can’t the apple store have adult areas? Surely it’s safer to lock out phones of the under-18s from adult apps and only allow them to be unlocked when they can provide proof of age. Of course this isn’t foolproof and will be bypassed by some but it’s easy to browse to porn from your PC or mobile device so how does apples current stance protect kids from adult content?