Verizon and Cingular go censor crazy with mobile content
by Paul Miller 
posted Apr 27th 2006 @ 9:31PM
You might want to look elsewhere if you
were hoping that snazzy new 3G handset of yours with a large screen was going to be conveying any spicy content, or
really much of anything some suit might label "controversial." Turns out Verizon and Cingular are really putting the FCC to shame in their clampdown
of vulgarities and what not in mobile content. Cingular, for example, has banned the words "lesbian,"
"condom," "pee pee," (that was getting out of hand, but what about "Wii Wii"?), and all Mature and Adult
gaming content. Teen-rated content doesn't even get a free pass, so developers will have to really watch it if they want
to be promoted to the largest mobile subscriber base in the country. Verizon is similarly conservative, even though they
have taken to some risque advertising methods, featuring the sexy Joanna Dark (pictured at right, censors courtesy of
our friends at Joystiq). But they'll have none of it from content providers. Along with the standard sex and vulgarity
bans, they don't allow the "glorification or promotion of tobacco, alcohol or drug use," and ban derogatory
references to Verizon, Verizon Wireless, or Vodafone. We'd better stop talking about this before we get banned as
well.[Via Joystiq]
