iPhone rolls out purity ring app

A UK software developer has released a "purity ring" application for Apple's iPhone.

Users can take a purity pledge - a promise to refrain from sex until marriage - and then display a spinning purity ring graphic on the phone.

The application goes on sale at the official App Store for £0.59 ($0.99).

Wall Entertainment, the firm behind the application, said it was taking an old idea and applying it to a new technological medium.

"It's a novel application," the company's director, Henry Bennett told the BBC.

"Kids are engaging with their phones in a way their parents never did, so this is a way of them showing they have taken the pledge."

Started in the US, the Silver Ring Thing (SRT) is the organisation behind the purity ring symbol and was founded by Denny and Amy Pattyn in 1996.

It was their response to what they saw as a worrying rise in the number of pregnancies among teenage girls.

In the UK, SRT is based in West Sussex and run by a group of volunteers.

But Mr Bennett said there was - for now - no link between SRT and the iPhone purity ring.

"We've contacted the SRT to let them know about our app and we're now waiting to see whether they will endorse this product."

While there are millions of people who have taken the purity pledge in the US, in Britain the figure is far smaller.

Mr Bennett said that they were waiting for sales figures from the Apple App Store, but said it would be "interesting" to see how well it sells in America.

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