Mobile users buying X-Rated content

The online applications stores of SK Telecom, Korea’s top mobile service operator, and rival KT are offering mobile porn to its customers in an apparent reversal of a decision by them in 2006 to ban such offensive material.

SKT and KT agreed four years ago, along with local rival LG Telecom, to remove all “adult” content, including obscene photos and videos, in response to a public outcry about its harmful effects, particularly on teenagers.

Before 2006, X-rated content had been a key revenue source for Korean mobile carriers. SKT is estimated to have received 70 billion won ($61 million) from X-rated downloads in 2005, while sales in the same category were 20 billion won for KT and 3.8 billion won for LGT.

SKT recently began offering the adult material through T Store, its applications retail outlet for the company’s mobile phone users.

Ranked as popular downloads in the “fun category” of T Store were some nude photo shoots with such titles as “Fatal Attraction” and “Barbie Doll’s Bold Exposure,” according to the Yonhap News Agency

The fun category also included “3-D multiview photo shoots,” where users can view models from different angles. Some 240 pieces of X-rated content were listed as 3-D multiview photo shoots.

SKT denied, however, that the company has changed its stance on X-rated material, but said its availability was the result of T Store’s open architecture.

“All content on T Store goes through a review by a relevant authority prior to and after uploading. They are all rated and thus teenagers have limited access to them,” said Oh Dong-jun, a SKT spokesperson, referring to the Korea Media Rating Board.

Mobile operators normally take a share of the profit from products sold by application developers on their online stores, with KT getting a 30 percent share. LGT said its app store does not contain X-rated material since it is not using open architecture yet.