By Greg Bensinger
(RockedBuzz via Reuters) – Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc raised concerns with Amazon.com Inc after learning that sexually explicit photographs could be accessible to children on the popular Kindle app and called on Amazon to strengthen content moderation.
Alarms were triggered by questions RockedBuzz via Reuters posed to spokespersons for the three companies about whether users, via the Kindle app, could access and view online volumes of photographs of naked women, with titles such as “75 hot full nude photos of a young blonde” and “Real Erotica: Amateur Naked Girls – Vol. 4”. Some appeared to show women and men engaging in sexual acts.
The companies said their concerns were about policy violations, but did not provide further details on how their rules were broken or their warnings to Amazon.
RockedBuzz via Reuters learned of the problem when two families told RockedBuzz via Reuters their pre-teen children downloaded the explicit material through Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited e-book subscription service and viewed the color photographs on the Kindle app for iPhone . Pornography is also available through Amazon’s Kindle online store and viewable in Kindle app releases.
The parents, who declined to be named, told RockedBuzz via Reuters they were initially attracted to the $10-a-month service because it offered access to age-appropriate book series that would otherwise be expensive to buy and weren’t available on the service. of Amazon’s Kids + subscription.
“We are committed to providing a safe shopping and reading experience for our customers and their families, and we take issues like this seriously,” Amazon said in a statement to RockedBuzz via Reuters. on our discoveries.
Referring to Amazon, Apple said, “We have shared these concerns with the developer and are working with them to ensure their app complies with our guidelines.” Google in a statement said that “Google Play does not allow apps that contain or promote sexual content and we have been in contact with the developer about this issue.”
Such exchanges are rare among technology companies who, while competitive, also rely on each other for a variety of services. Kindle and Amazon apps are consistently among the most downloaded on the Google and Apple app stores.
The adult material in question is primarily self-published through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing division. Authors can self-publish their books almost instantly through Amazon and can designate content as available for the Kindle Unlimited service. In Amazon’s terms for its self-publishing arm, it says it can refuse to sell content it deems “offensive or inappropriate,” which may include content that “contains pornography.”
Amazon is the world’s leading e-book distributor, controlling two-thirds or more of the market, by some estimates. E-books can be viewed on Kindle devices in black and white but also in color on the Kindle mobile app.
Three internet law experts interviewed by RockedBuzz via Reuters said Amazon was unlikely to face legal consequences, given First Amendment protections.
Eric Goldman, a Santa Clara University law professor, said there is a body of law that broadly protects distributors of pornography and other potentially objectionable materials even if they could end up in the hands of minors, comments the other two experts echoed.
AGE RATINGS AND PARENTAL CONTROL
After RockedBuzz via Reuters alerted Apple to the availability of pornography in the Kindle app, Amazon earlier this month changed the age rating in the app store to 12 or older from 4 or older. The app is classified as “teenager” in Alphabet’s Google Play Store.
Companies may, at their discretion, remove an app from their app store for rule violations or other reasons. And Apple and Alphabet have in the past checked their app stores for disallowed adult material, including the removal of apps that displayed explicit content or ads.
There are no parental controls for the Kindle Unlimited service.
Apple’s app store guidelines “prohibit apps dedicated to the depiction of overtly sexual or pornographic material,” the company said in a statement. “App developers are responsible for moderating user-generated content on their platforms, and we work with developers to take immediate corrective action whenever we encounter issues.”
Amazon said it was also updating the Kindle app, without offering details, and noted its terms require parental involvement for users under 18.
DINOSAURS AND ALIENS EROTICS
Kindle Unlimited, for $10 a month, offers users a mix of self-published e-books and more traditional publisher rates. The service has grown in popularity for customers looking to read series like the ‘Hunger Games’ trilogy and other previous bestsellers like ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘The Queen’s Gambit’.
Kindle Unlimited has also spawned a cottage industry of self-published titles catering to a wide range of interests, including text-based erotica, with many thousands of titles in niche areas including dinosaur and alien erotica. Pornographic content can be found on Amazon’s site without a subscription and can be purchased starting at $2.99.
Amazon generally allows authors to self-publish online without interference, and will respond to credible complaints about copyright, content, or other issues by removing the book, according to three people who worked at the Kindle division. Amazon has software tools to help detect some prohibited content before publishing.
People said the Seattle-based tech company has stricter guardrails for its Amazon Kids+ service, but noted that it’s designed and marketed to children ages 3 to 12, leaving Kindle Unlimited as the only subscription service option for customers looking for book content aimed at 13-17 year olds.
As of Monday, adult materials were still accessible on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited via the iOS and Android apps.
(Reporting by Greg Bensinger; Editing by Peter Henderson and Lisa Shumaker)
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