Privacy could be a casualty of latest attack on 'sexting'

By Gina Tomaine

Apple recently obtained a patent for "anti-sexting" technology that would allow an iPhone to block sexual and other inappropriate language from text messages received and sent by minors. While there are clear benefits to advancing parental control over children's almost limitless access to technology, this restrictive and invasive technology has serious privacy implications.

"Sexting," the sending of sexual text and picture messages, has been a problem among those using cell phones at young ages. The proposed iPhone application could either censor offending words from such messages or block them entirely. Originally filed for in 2008, the patent has been approved, but the technology is not yet available to consumers.

Parental-control settings for television, film, and the Internet have been available for years. But the iPhone technology would differ from existing systems that block or rate age-inappropriate material. Instead of filtering mass media, it would screen private messages exchanged among individuals.

The issue here is not the marketed, socially beneficial use of the technology - that is, preventing minors from sexting. Rather, it's the ability of any company not only to monitor all communication coming from a personal device, but also to edit it.

Apple has issued statements saying the technology has the potential to monitor grammar and vocabulary usage, especially for students. So Big Brother would not just be watching; he would also be spell-checking.

No one is saying this is a far-reaching government conspiracy, but Apple has created a piece of technology that could interfere in a fundamentally private sphere: personal messages exchanged among people. Such technology raises the question of how much privacy we are willing to relinquish to achieve a greater good, whether that good is protecting teenagers from sexual messages or improving their grammar.

And if control over the grammar and vocabulary of young adults is deemed the proper way to educate them, should we also monitor and censor their other forms of communication, such as e-mail? Otherwise, it seems, minors will simply use other means to bypass their censored cell phones.

Apple's patent is geared toward children and young adults, but if the program works, applications of the technology to employee e-mails or company-issued cell phones would be a probable and profitable next step. Perhaps more tactical sexting education for children and parents would serve society better and more practically than censorship of communications among minors or anyone else.