C'Mon Zune Team .. Really?

@giovanni: True, but it will at least stop my 7-year-old son from reading it, which wouldn't be appropriate.

Herbie

@giovanni:Not ideal but it is a definite improvement (it demonstrates that there is still an issue in todays society with swear words in such an open context).

@Dr Herbie: and @Ian2: I don' know, I am no parent (though I am approaching the age when I am starting to think about it), but I consider myself a very respectful and polite person. My first reaction would be that if you consider your child a little mature (16? just making the number up) it is probably ok for him to start being exposed at what happens in everyday's life and let him make his own judgments (though he is no adult yet and parents should still oversee him and show the good example). But if your child is 7, should he/she be exposed to the whole internet? Or should he/she be exposed only to "controlled" environments like she is in other contests of life? Should zune.net be part of the environment for a 7 years old?

As far as for the rest of us more or less grownups, it is distasteful, but that song passes to the radio all the time. If society thinks it is appropriate for us to listen to it (I definitely don't like it not because of the f word), then we are responsible for changing the station. Masking the word with a beep that makes you perfectly understand what the world was, I think is just lame.

@giovanni: I tend to agree with Giovanni here. How will you explain "My humps" to your child? I have 2 nephews (7 and 8 years old) that have been exposed to naughty words. They don't always know what those words mean, but they know they're naughty words. If you teach your kids which words are acceptable to use and which are not, they'll be fine.

@giovanni: My son likes to sit on my knee and chat while I use the PC. I'm happy for him to do this because it encourages him to read things and learn.  When he's with me I don't go to sites where I expect there to be language that I think is inappropriate for my children, I don't play games that are inappropriate for his age group, and I don't want inappropriate language slipping under the radar by appearing in otherwise innocuous software (like Zune). It would be like a TV presenter swearing unexpectedly on an afternoon show.

One day the inevitable will happen and I will explain what these things mean to my children, but I'd like to delay that as long as is reasonable; by my reckoning 7 years is too young to know what the F-word is, and that is my decision.  I would like to have the control required to filter such language out where I deem it inappropriate.

Herbie.

@Dr Herbie: I think we do agree on the general terms and probably having an otpion to enable/disable content like on search engines could be a solution. However, I don't agree that the zune software should count among the innocuous software apriori: the goal of the Zune (just like iTunes and other content providers) is to provide access to many forms of art like music and films and much of the art has been provocative for a long time. Artists have, for the good and the bad, provoqued our reactions to awake our spirit for centuries. What worries me most, is that most content providers (all?) have content with extrememly low artistic value. In my opinion offering content with low artistic and moral values is much more dangerous than exposing young children to inappropriate words.

Again, having an option as you suggest could be the best solution, especially if one could target the content to his or her own taste or age.

@giovanni: I don't care about the content of the songs and I'm happy for all songs to be displayed in the list, I would just like an option to replace swear words with a marker when they appear on the UI.  

Herbie

To reiterate, it just struck me as wrong to see this video title displayed in such an open forum - I'm not aware that Microsoft is limiting Zunes to the over 18's, which might have gone some way to excusing it (both my daughters have 4GB Zunes and love them).

I guess on a personal note my geek sensibilities were tingling -  I was a little concerned about such a public inidication of the deterioration of our society*.

Happilly It looks as though this balance has been restored and we can all get on with our daily lives ... oh wait, what about Tenacious D? - Those guys are old enough to know better...

*  Not to mention the possible knock on implications in the fabric of the space-time continuam?

@Ian2: Ok, so you are worried that  a minor may learn or see explicit words, then maybe don't sign in with your adult Live ID so that explicit content isn't displayed and denied access to.

For the others who are offended, please tell that to the artist of the content. I am pretty sure the Zune team would like (and should) to represent the artist's titling intentions when delivering their contents. I for one want them to do that and I'd wish censorship to die, entirely. I would respect your choice of words, even if I don't feel quite comfortable listening to those words you chose.

If anything should change, then it should only be a setting, like in DVD playback software, which determines which types of content to deny access to as an option for the user.

@Dodo:Yes also, as I previously stated, I am offended myself and would like the option of filtering out (offensive) content (& preferably without having to set myself up as a minor!)