Apple, ever so wholesome, has been hard at work to make sure our iPhones stay clean of any filthy or salacious content. It started with apps that may have been remotely viewed as a bit too sexy, and now it’s even looking to block sexy texts. That’s right. The US Patent and Trademark Office just approved a patent that Apple filed back in 2008 that looks to block sexting and other “objectionable” content.

The actual patent is titled “Text-based communication control for personal communication device.” Apple feels that little kiddies and teens using the iPhone may be sending and receiving text messages to each other that parents wouldn’t be too happy seeing. So it’s very possible that Steve Jobs & Co. may be looking for a way to make sure messages with such dirty content don’t get sent or received.

Here’s a juicy bit of the patent from TechCrunch:

In one embodiment, the control application includes a parental control application. The parental control application evaluates whether or not the communication contains approved text based on, for example, objective ratings criteria or a user’s age or grade level, and, if unauthorized, prevents such text from being included in the text-based communication. If the control contains unauthorized text, the control application may alert the user, the administrator or other designated individuals of the presence of such text. The control application may require the user to replace the unauthorized text or may automatically delete the text or the entire communication.

I’d like to see the library of words that Apple has to determine which texts get sent, and which ones don’t. Of course, this is probably just going to force kids to get a little more creative with their language – whether they come up with more clever phrasing or just start replacing letters with numerical characters.

[Via: TechCrunch]