Twitter's Vine App Gets 17+ Rating After Porn Controversy

Video-sharing app Vine is no longer a platform for pre-teen antics; it has now been slapped with a 17+ rating.

The iOS app received an update to versions 1.0.5 on Wednesday. Along with the adult rating, Vine will also now let you block a profile, as well as share to Twitter and Facebook after posting.

The 17+ rating comes after many pornographic clips were posted to Vine, one of which mistakenly landed at the top of the Editor's Picks (it was quickly removed and chalked up to "human error," according to Twitter).

Vine launched last month with a 12+ age rating, but it was upped to 17 this week for - among other things - "frequent/intense sexual content or nudity" - according to the new app description. When opening the app, a pop-up (above) will now ask you to confirm your age. Of course, there's no way to verify someone's age, so it's basically on the honor system.

If you stumble on a video you deem offensive, you can report or block the person who posted it. Go to their profile, tap the "..." button on the top right and a pop-up will give you the option to block (or share) the profile. To report a specific video, tap the "..." button on that video and tap "Report this post."

The app update also allows people to share their videos to Twitter and Facebook after posting; previously you had to choose where it would reside right after uploading. To share, tap the "..." on the bottom right of the video. Once shared, the video will show up as a link on your Twitter or Facebook account (see photos at right).

When Vine initially launched, Facebook blocked access to the app because it fell into a group of apps that "either replicate[d] our functionality or bootstrap[ped] their growth in a way that creates little value for people on Facebook."

At this point, Facebook integration is still limited - you can find Twitter friends to follow within the Vine app, but the app cannot peruse your Facebook friends. Basically, Facebook took issue with the fact that Vine just posted links on Facebook, rather than embedding them on the service. Anyone clicking on a Vine link is directed to the Vine site or app; you can't watch directly from Facebook.

Today's update, meanwhile, also fixed an issue that caused a black screen to appear and uploads to fail after creating a video on certain devices, Vine said, as well as various bug fixes.

Vine isn't the first to get a slap on the wrist for sharing adult content. Photo-sharing service 500px was briefly removed from the App Store once nude photographs were discovered (it returned on Jan. 29). For other apps that ran afoul of Apple's policies, see the slideshow below.

For more, see PCMag's review of Vine for iPhone. Also, check out our guide to using Vine.

Chloe Albanesius contributed to this report.

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