Purity ring (abstinence) iPhone app

What you see in the image is a screenshot of the Purity Ring iPhone app, where one — were one so inclined to pledge one’s life to abstinence and chastity — can download and take the pledge, wearing their ring on their iPhone. Where it really means something, along with that “Pull My Finger” iPhone fart app. My friends at Europe based Sex and Blogs tell us,

For just 59p, iPhone consumers can download an application that allows them to take a purity pledge and then display a silver ring on their phone to prove their commitment to abstinence before marriage.

Its creator, Island Wall Entertainment, claims the product will appeal to the younger generation and those people who have not already committed themselves to a life of abstinence and chastity.

The application has a pre-recorded pledge for both genders that the user must accept before being able to display their ring on a loop.

The application may also allow school pupils to circumvent uniform rules banning jewellery. In 2007, Lydia Playfoot lost her high court battle to wear her purity ring at school when a judge ruled she had not been discriminated against.

In the US, around 8m people have taken a purity pledge; in the UK, the figure is around 250,000. The country is regularly described as the teenage pregancy capital of Europe, and last week it was revealed that a £6m campaign to cut teenage pregnancies had failed, leading to an increase, rather than a drop, in the number of girls getting pregnant. (link)

The Guardian UK is calling it, “the virtual chastity aid Britain’s young people may have been waiting for.” Really, waiting?