Tech conference kicks off with TitStare app

Are they all 12 year old boys? Even better (worse), there was a 9 year old girl there to present her app at the conference. Way to provide a hostile environment. [Link]

As a lovely followup to recent discussions of gender inclusivity in tech, here's the first presentation from the AOL-ownedTechCrunch Disrupt 2013 startup conference: an app called Titstare, presented by two grinning Australian dudes, exactly as tasteless as it sounds.

The stunt—which the Sydney duo claims was just a "joke"—
was done before to an audience who paid for the opportunity to watch what was essentially a shitty routine pulled from the boys' cabin at sleepaway camp. Some in attendance actually laughed and cheered, so I suppose part of the crowd thought they got their money's worth.

The difference between summer camp and TechCrunch Disrupt, of course, is that Jethro Batts and David Boulton are grown men, ostensibly adults, on a stage at a hugely prominent technology business conference—-a conference that saw these two jackasses and invited them up on that stage. TechCrunch proceeded to tweet a link to Titstare from its official Disrupt account, but decided that was perhaps unwise, and deleted it, settling for this instead:

We apologize for two inappropriate hackathon presentations earlier today. We will more carefully screen from now on.

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) September 8, 2013

If only there had been some way to foresee an adverse reaction to "Titstare"—perhaps a "screening" app of some sort is in order. Pandora for common sense?

If you'd like to feel worse today, here's another "demo" from the same "hackathon" "presentation," which is basically a guy pretending to jerk off before a crowd that included a 9-year-old girl.