Have You Installed This 'Nude Scanner App' That Scans Clothed People Nakid On Your Phone Yet?

Mobile app N*de Scanner 3D that showed images of a nakid woman's breasts and crotch blurred out, has already been banned after viewers complained that it was demeaning and shown when it could be seen by children. But, the question we ask is, have you installed it on your phone yet? The ad was approved by compliance and clearance agency Clearcast with an ex-children restriction. The app's developer, Jesta Digital GmbH, trading as Jamster, said it stopped broadcasting the ad after receiving complaints. But it said the ad was cleared with a restriction preventing it from being broadcast within children's programmes, and considered the programmes during which the ad was viewed had not targeted children.

Clearcast said the images were no more risque than underwear ads or music videos, adding that there was nothing in the ad which condoned or promoted an unwanted scan. However, it said: "Because the ad focused on the product's apparent ability to enable the user to view nakid images of women using the camera on their phone, and had a prolonged focus on the female model, we considered it was unsuitable for a child audience and was likely to be viewed as demeaning to women and, therefore, offensive."

It added that Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (Barb) figures showed that the proportion of children who had watched Hollyoaks during the times when the ad was viewed by the complainants was, on two occasions, above the threshold at which a programme was said to have particular appeal to audiences who were under 16 years of age.

Furthermore, on those broadcasts and on one other broadcast the number of children between the ages of 10 and 15 who had viewed Hollyoaks was also above that threshold.

The ASA said: "We considered that, whilst younger children may not understand the references to a 'n*de scanner', that was unlikely to be the case for older children and we considered them to be the group most likely to have been interested in downloading the app.

"Because the ad was likely to cause serious or widespread offence, we concluded it should not have been broadcast at any time, including during programmes of particular appeal to children."

The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form, saying: "We told Jesta Digital GmbH to ensure their future advertising was not demeaning to women and contained nothing that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence."