by Katie
Alston

A family-owned swimwear company was shocked when their iPhone
app was removed by Apple for being "overtly sexual".

Simply Beach, which employs 24 staff across Whitstable and Faversham, created the app in a bid to make it easier for customers to find bikinis and swimwear online.

It showcases all of the products found on their website and
allows users to do a search by either product or department and
from there customers can view pictures and detailed descriptions of
the company’s stock.

On February 19 the company received an email from the iPhone App Review team which read: “Your application Simply Beach, contains content that we had originally believed to be suitable for distribution.

However, we have recently received numerous complaints from our
customers about this type of content and have changed our
guidelines appropriately. We have decided to remove any overtly
sexual content from the App store, which includes your
application.”

Gerrard Dennis, managing director of The Simply Group said: “The
email arrived straight to a junk mail folder and to be honest we
thought it was a spam joke.

“We then checked to find the app had in fact been removed. It
seemed like political correctness gone mad. It’s just women in
bikinis, swimsuits and kaftans.

“It was a shock as citing 'sexually explicit content’ as the
sole basis for the ban seemed a bit ambiguous.

“If the iPhone team were referring to the models wearing bikinis
and swimsuits, then this is nothing short of absurd."

The Simply Beach app developers Explodingphone noticed the original app had been reinstated on iTunes on February 23, with the company receiving no word from Apple on the subject or about any age restriction.

Mr Dennis added: “Being charitable to Apple, maybe they made a genuine error. However, if that were the case I think an apology would have been forthcoming." Apple was unavailable for comment.