Apple has joined a number of digital music vendors, including Amazon and Napster, in introducing the official Parental Advisory warning label to tracks and albums that contain explicit content, mirroring the warning found on physical CDs.
The introduction of this label is intended to make it clearer for parents to understand whether or not the music their children are purchasing is unsuitable for their age.
In the U.K., its rollout is accompanied by a new Parental Advisory website. Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which is behind the site, said that it will provide parents with all the information they need:
We know that the parental advisory logo on CDs and DVDs has been a useful tool for parents, offering them a simple means of identifying music content that may not be suitable for their children.
We believe that parents need the same guidance when their children are downloading or streaming songs or videos online, so we have extended the logo to digital music services. Our new website, www.parental-advisory.co.uk gives parents the details they need.
The BPI does not make it compulsory for retailers to display the Parental Advisory notice, and it acknowledges that some companies may wish to use their own warnings. Until Apple adopted the scheme, it used its own “Explicit” tag next to specific tracks to make it clear which content was unsuitable for younger audiences. For the time being, those tags still remain, along with the Parental Advisory warning.
The Telegraph reports that British children are set to receive over £110 million (approx. $172.5 million) in music vouchers this Christmas, and these tags should help parents determine what that money should not be spent on.
[via The Next Web]
