Google and Apple are unhappy about the abundance of adult content on Amazon’s Kindle platform. Thousands of adult titles are being sold on Amazon’s Kindle for less price or free.
The Kindle platform allows users to buy and download books, magazines, and newspapers. As a result, it has become a popular destination for readers of all ages. However, the platform has also become controversial recently, as many exotic-oriented titles have been made available for download.
The warnings were sparked when two families told Reuters about the objectionable images of men and women their pre-teens downloaded via Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited e-book subscription. Moreover, the adult content is also available through Amazon’s Kindle online store and viewable on versions of the Kindle app.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Amazon had been notified about its failure to keep adult content from the Kindle app and store. In addition, Apple and Google told Reuters that their app stores do not allow the sale of adult content, and they had been discussing the things with developers too. The companies are mainly concerned about policy violations. But, they did not provide details of how their rules were broken or the warnings to Amazon.
Between the controversy, Amazon came forward in favour of its Kindle platform. It told Reuters, “We’re committed to offering a safe shopping and reading experience to our customers, and we take this type of matter seriously,” They said, “We are reviewing the data and will take necessary actions.” According to a Reuters report, Amazon has changed the Kindle’s age rating in the Apple App Store from 4 years or older to 12 years or older after it received notice of the exotic content on Kindle.
Though Amazon is not the only tech company that faces criticism, as Google and Apple have also come under fire; according to a study YouTube, which Alphabet owns, Google’s parent company, exposes minors to adult material. Additionally, there have been reports of advertisements for the “Adult Video Chat” app on Apple’s App Store. But, the issue with Amazon is its failure to follow its store policies.
It still needs to be made clear what action Amazon plans to take. Also, Google and Apple have strict policies regarding adult content. And they could remove the Kindle app from their respective app stores if they feel that Amazon is not doing enough to address the issue.
Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.