There's no sense in denying it: Vine, Twitter's new video-sharing service, has a wee bit of a porn problem. We've seen a pornographic clip featured as an "Editor's Pick" and there have been attempts to censor #porn, #sex, and other naughty hashtags in order to hide inappropriate content. And now Twitter just plain slapped an age restriction on the Vine app.
If you attempt to download the Vine app from the Apple App Store — the only place you can get the app right now — a message will pop up, demanding that you confirm that you are 17 years of age or older. This prompt appeared Wednesday after the Vine app received an update which includes bug fixes and minor improvements. (The update also allows users to report or block profiles, which, as we previously noted, was a missing feature when the app first launched.)
Given the porn-fueled drama surrounding Vine's early days, it's not particularly surprising that Twitter added an age restriction to the app. There could be additional motivations for the move as well, of course, as 500px, a popular photo-sharing app, was recently removed from the App Store over porn-related concerns and returned only once its developers made changes which included an age restriction and an abuse reporting tool.
A Twitter spokesperson previously told NBC Newsthat the company is "in the process of changing how users find and view sensitive content" and that it is "experimenting with a number of approaches and will continue to iterate," so we expect that the age restriction likely won't be the last thing we'll hear when it comes to Vine's porn problem.
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