YNOT – A listener’s complaint during a call-in show on China National Radio precipitated demands that Apple Computer Inc. face criminal charges for allowing its popular iTunes Store to distribute content considered pornographic under Chinese law.

Apple has assured the Chinese government the company takes great care to ensure no “harmful material” is offered in the iTunes Store, yet some Chinese consumers beg to differ with the computer giant’s definition of “harmful material.” One, a man identified only as Liu, recently told CNR his family was upset to discover sexually explicit material in a download entitled “18 Novels Forbidden in the Ming and Qing Dynasty.”

In response to questions following the incident, an Apple spokesperson suggested to CNR that perhaps the consumer should have paid more attention to a label on the product, which warned the material was suitable only for adults older than 17.

The radio network was not amused. Neither was Li Qiang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Qiang told CNR some of Apple’s iTunes content clearly violates pornography laws passed in China last year. He also called for charges to be filed against the company.

A government official indicated the Peoples Republic may indeed look into the matter and perhaps blacklist Apple’s websites. Li Jiaming, director of the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center, told CNR the content Liu downloaded violates Chinese law and should not have been offered to Chinese consumers. Apple’s content rating scheme, while it may be perfectly appropriate for Americans and consumers in other countries, comes nowhere near to conforming to China’s restrictions governing internet content. Apple needs to develop a set of approved guidelines if it wants to continue to sell to Chinese consumers, or it can kiss the lucrative and growing Chinese market goodbye.

“In a country that has zero tolerance toward pornography dissemination, we won’t accept the [current] rating system at all,” Li said. “Apple can’t use American laws to treat the problem in China.”