April 21, 2013 | Online

App protects against incest in Iceland

When it comes to sex, most of us are concerned about the same things: avoiding STIs like herpes and HIV, whether he's a top or bottom, or if your fuck buddy is familiar with deodorant.

In Iceland, however, there's another concern: is my play date a not-so-distant cousin?

The country has a population of 320,000, and many people are actually related in some way. So a smartphone app was created to help Icelanders avoid accidental incest.

"Bump the app before you bump in bed," says the catchy slogan for the Islendiga-App ("App of Icelanders"). People put their phones together and the app determines if they really should 'just be friends.'

"Everyone has heard the story of going to a family event and running into a girl you hooked up with some time ago," said Einar Magnusson. "It's not a good feeling when you realize that girl is a second cousin. People may think it's funny, but (the app) is a necessity."

The app was created by three University of Iceland software engineering students for a contest calling for "new creative uses" of the Islendingabok, or Book of Icelanders, which is an online database of residents and their family trees stretching back 1,200 years.

"A small but much talked about feature is the loosely translated 'Incest Prevention Alarm' that users can enable through the options menu which notifies the user if the person he's bumping with is too closely related," designer Arnar Freyr Adalsteinsson explained.

Next stop, Alabama! (What? I kid!)

New App Tells Icelanders If Their Hookup Qualifies As Accidental Incest [popSci]

Kissing cousins? Icelandic app warns if your date is a relative [CBC]