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Tech conference forced to apologise over controversial 'tit staring' app

What a pair…

TECHNOLOGY BLOG TECHCRUNCH has been forced to apologise after allowing a ‘Titstare’ app be presented at their Silicon Valley conference yesterday.

Two developers Jethro Batts and David Boulton from Sydney, Australia created the app during the conference’s hackathon. The competition sees a group of developers spending 24 hours coding and original idea, before pitching the product in front of an audience of developers and investors.

Titstare, they begin, is an app

where you take photos of yourself staring at tits.

Well, it pretty much does exactly what it says on the tin then.

stareapp Twitter / HateYouCards Twitter / HateYouCards / HateYouCards

The duo’s pitch relied heavily on the scentific, hard facts and even linked the lowering male life expectancy directly to women covering up their cleavage.

Did you know that looking at breasts is directly linked with a good healthy heart.
So what’s the problem?
Well, women just aren’t that warm to it.

Further fury was added to the uproar by the fact that there was a 9-year-old girl in the audience at the time.

Alexandra Jordan, the kid creator of play-date scheduling tool Super Fun Kid Time, was watching with her mum Kim who was quick to tweet a sarcastic dig.

kimtweet

With the rising outrage on Twitter, conference organiser TechCrunch was forced to post an apologetic blog post, promising to screen every presentation from this hackathon onward, adding that

Today’s issues resulted from a failure to properly screen our hackathons for inappropriate content ahead of time and establish clear guidelines for these submissions.

The Aussie duo were pitching at the conference having won a similar competition that paid for their travel to Silicon Valley and exposure to investors. Their winning idea, Hate You Cards, allow users to make mean cards to send to their friends via email or post.

Speaking to FairFax Media, co-creator Batts said the Titstare app was tongue-in-cheek and he didn’t expect the reception that it has received online as the reaction in the room was quite good, and lots of people were laughing.

The pair later tweeted an apology.

staretweet

You can watch the full pitch below:

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