Six Seconds Of Pleasure: Vine's Porn Problem

Twitter's new video clip sharing service, Vine, is already prompting controversy with a proliferation of pornography, potentially putting the new social network at risk from more prurient app store masters. Launched last week as a way to easily create and share brief, looping video clips, Vine has unsurprisingly been quickly adopted by users distributing snippets of sex, either DIY or pieced together from commercial releases.

As with Twitter, Vine users can tag their clips with hashtags, and it doesn't take much searching to find "#sex" and "#porn" well populated with the sort of content that wouldn't be appropriate for younger Viners. Apple, for instance, rates the Vine app as suitable for those aged 12 or over, calling it out for infrequent or mild suggestive themes, nudity, or sexual content, though that description is at odds with the hardcore pornography readily available today.

In response, Twitter has said it has a two-stage complaints system which relies on users to initially report anything they deem inappropriate. Questionable content such as "nudity, violence, or medical procedures" can be flagged within the app or on the website, the social company told Business Insider, at which point any future viewings will be preceded by a warning message.

However, that flag will also trigger a review by the Vine team itself, which will decide whether or not the content should be left in place or removed. Vine users can also have their accounts terminated, Twitter points out, if the material does not meet with the terms of service.

Whether the rise in adult material will force a more dramatic move by Apple remains to be seen. Only last week, iOS developer 500px saw its apps pulled from the App Store after the iPhone maker decided sexual content was too readily available.

Meanwhile, if you want to see the sort of content that's being shared on Vine – and, as far as we can tell, without rogue genitalia – then Just Vined is gathering up recent clips in one big preview (that's happily muted by default). There's more on Vine in our full SlashGear 101.