ADULT CONTENT ON iTUNES

Apple doesn't apply this to it's own content on iTunes?

It's not Apple's content. The content belongs to others, and Apple has no right to alter it. You can suggest that audiobooks have an "explicit" tag on them similar to those on music tracks:

iTunes feedback page

but that would require the cooperation of the owners of the audiobooks, so it's not something that Apple can implement quickly, if they can at all.

Don't you find it interesting that the Apple forum restricts language ( the asterisks in my posting were automatically inserted by the Apple forum) but Apple doesn't apply this to it's own content on iTunes?

Not really, no. The forum software has a search engine built in that can look for certain words. That's easy to accomplish. It's impossible to automatically scan an audio track for explicit language and filter it automatically. As I said, the owners of the content would have to cooperate in labeling their material so that Apple could provide a filter as they do with music.

they likely don't fully understand the Public Relations issues at play here. The target kids with iPods and also access to iTunes.

Of course they do. But they're limited, as is any content provider (particularly one that doesn't own the content), in what they can in practicality do.

Have you tried setting the "restrict explicit content" in the iTunes Parental Controls preference? I don't know if that applies to audiobooks, but if you haven't tried it, you might want to do so. If that doesn't work, then you will have to block the iTunes Store completely (and many other sites including perhaps public libraries, many of which are beginning to offer audiobook downloads) to keep your children from coming in contact with explicit material.

Regards.

"Don't you find it interesting that the Apple forum restricts language ( the asterisks in my posting were automatically inserted by the Apple forum) but Apple doesn't apply this to it's own content on iTunes?"

That's because we're helping each other with issues on the store, not creating art. There's no need to curse or such via this forums, but expressing yourself through music, a book, etc...may sometimes require a bit (or a lot, haha) of vulgarity.

The explicit tag that allows iTunes parental controls to block specific content is not set for those audiobooks. It is up to the publisher of the content to set those tags correctly when submitting the content to the iTunes Store. I have sent in a request to notify the publisher.

I got a response back from the iTunes Store on this. Apparently this text slipped through their filters somehow; they say that language should have been asterisked out. If they can't get it corrected soon, I'm told they'll hide the book until it can be cleaned up.

Cheers.

That text also comes from the publisher. If content is marked as explicit, any corresponding text is also blocked by iTunes parental controls.