The question I get asked the most by people is ‘why is Freyja not in the app store?’

Whenever I get this question, my heart sinks a bit with frustration, because like other adult themed sites, we are not allowed in the app store. You might be surprised by this, as most people thought that apps such as fan sites are in the store.

Why are adult sites not allowed in the app store?

The apple store and game store’s policies towards porn are clear:

Apps containing pornographic material, defined by Webster's Dictionary as "explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings", will be rejected. ‘Apps that also have user generated pornography will also be banned’.

I guess in theory as a rule this could make sense. But, the issue is these guidelines do not apply to everyone.

There are several examples of this.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the app store: Twitter

Let’s look at Twitter as an example. Twitter is in the app store, however, Twitter does not ban pornography, and has a large amount of unverified, harmful & illegal pornographic content on its app. On the other side, we have companies such as Freyja who have consent and KYC verifies every single piece of content before it’s even posted, but we are not allowed in the store. This doesn’t really make much sense.

It’s interesting how the media, companies and governments tend to ignore the fact that Twitter is porn. When speaking with UK regulators I’ve found it very frustrating how regulations will be pushed onto adult sites, but then Twitter doesn’t need to meet these regulations, because the government claims ‘it’s different’. The reality is, it is different. The difference is that most adult sites have age verification and safety around their adult content, but Twitter does not. So, why are adult companies the one’s being kept out of the app store and more unsafe platforms are not?

If we’re talking about risk, what about dating?

One argument we often hear for adult sites not being allowed in the app store is for safety reasons. Okay, sure. Makes sense. But, when you think about other apps that are allowed this no longer logically adds up. For instance: Dating apps are allowed in the app store. Yet, they are still allowed even though they are filled with sexual harassment, unsolicited nudity and also have an even higher risk than some adult sites due to the in-person meet-up aspect.

Should audio count?

Did you know that there are audio porn apps in the app store? Some might not market that, but rather might say they are ‘audio creation’, but in fact there is audio porn in the app store. This is allowed to stay on because it is not visual. Do you think that’s a valid argument?

Overall, it is clear that these guidelines are in place to increase online safety. However, it begs a lot of questions about whether this is actually making things safer, or if it’s just an appearance of safety. Moreover, it is evident that these guidelines are not applying to everyone. This makes us ask; why are some companies being exempt from this when they are clearly breaking Apple's policies?