If there’s going to be a rating system put in place it should be a singular system that fits all the features. I shouldn’t have to set restrictions based on the part of Plex I’m using. So they should be incorporating the existing system and re-buffing it to fit the rest of the ecosystem in ways that users are asking for and have asked for in the past.
Personally I think I should be able to enable certain ratings at will. Not this group system they have now.
Young, Older, Teen is not granular enough IMO.
Could even take it a step further and implement a customizable keyword restriction.
Thanks for checking. If we all just take a step back for a moment, you’ll realize that all these minuscule problems add up. They all put the great but flawed effort of what the Plex team has done on Discover and Watchlist to a halt. My cynical tyranny is not because I like finding flaws, but I see what anyone else would have typically have caught in-house, or so I thought. When I brought these topics and concerns before to the forum, they were dismissed and sat on here taking space.
It was mentioned that this might not have been intended but if Plex is going forward with child content, mixed along side adult content, they need to have better mechanisms in place before launching Discover. It’s just a given.
After all, these ratings checks and balances are also on TV sets but also lack some extra safety features, but again, if Plex wants to set themselves apart, this is something they can hone down on and be a superior warrior on this front. Otherwise I think they should strip all children content as well as features and have this ecosystem strictly for adults or mature audiences.
This is like a personal relationship where one partner goes awry and wants to do their own thing without telling their partner what’s up or what their true intentions are. I’m tired of this identity crisis with Plex. But shame on me actually cuz I always knew Plex had issues. I did stay knowing full well that their apologies might have been lies.
Errrr, yeah I don’t give Elan enough credit. I been up his behind with PlexAmp but it has been the shiny gem out of all of this. It’s gotten pretty super solid in the last build. I most likely will use Plex solely for Music and that’s it.
Update 4/7: Plex users have spoken out about an issue for children with the new Watchlist being a backdoor into watching restricted content.
Read more about what’s going on in these Plex and reddit threads. But for now, it looks like even if you have children accounts set up with restrictions and even only let them watch content you own, be aware they may see explicit content through the new Watchlist and Discover suggestions.
Some have suggested the new features should be opt-in, not automatically added for all users. Hopefully, Plex responds soon. In the meantime, be careful with Plex for kids!
sorry late getting to this. the user i replied to kept on expressing locking content down per user for his local content so i sent that message. turns out he wants remote content control per user. so i said nevermind later.
This is awesome. This write up describes exactly how I stumbled across this content and my initial reaction to the box art. lol. I’m down for testing experimental stuff.
Thank you for sharing the article. Again, this is something that we are taking seriously.
The article got a lot of the information correct but there are some key points that were incorrect. I also see these key points echoed in this and other threads. Specifically as it relates to who can access what.
Managed users can only search Plex’s Video On Demand catalog (if enabled) or their shared PMS sources.
Managed users with either a Restriction Profile or Content Ratings restrictions will not see content outside their restriction.
The profile and rating restrictions can be helpful but there are Admin and Plex Pass users that prefer Sharing Labels to restrict or allow access. Sharing Labels do not extend past PMS sources.
Adult content in Hubs:
For the situation where a User (Managed or Plex account) would have an Actor Recommendation Hub in the Universal details page (Watchlist, Discover, More Ways to Watch) the above rules apply. Once this issue was identified, that Hub was removed last Friday.
Adult content in search:
Again, the above rules are true. Managed users can only search Plex’s Video On Demand catalog (if enabled) or their shared PMS sources and rating profile restrict content.
A non Managed User would need to search for specific adult keywords to find an adult title with an inappropriate poster or art. This is not to dismiss the issue, only highlighting the risk. Once this issue was identified, we quickly set stricter metadata constraints and reset our caching to purge any offending content.
I completely agree with the article that this is not very good. We have been monitoring the forums for feedback around Discover and are actively addressing the issues being raised.
There is a lot of work that has to be done across all of our supported clients, so this will take time. The quick and blunt actions taken so far were necessary first steps. We have more work to do.
Our next step is to allow disabling the More Ways to Watch search section. Again, the Discover features exist across all our supported clients so any change will take time to complete. We are exploring additional changes to the Discover features and how those changes will impact the application.
Please continue to provide feedback. If any more questionable content is found please don’t hesitate to continue to use the forums or DM me.
I’d be willing to bet that more users than not have at least one of these accounts (i have amazon prime, netflix, and disney plus). i described a little bit above that the apple tv app on apple tv does an awesome job with content curation from inside apps and how to me that is the dream. i don’t want to navigate a bunch of apps. i want the content presented to me and played seamlessly from a single place. we don’t all pirate, we don’t all have 50TBs of storage. Having access to TV and Movies from other sources is a positive even for cord cutters. My parents will never cut the cord and as such i have access to a directv premier account log in which opens up more opportunities for on demand content (not to mention access to LIVE TV if plex would ever add it to their dvr feature similar to how others have already added TVE functionality).
this kind of hyperbole is not constructive in my opinion. I have pushed back on these all or nothing decisions that affect all users of plex. that’s not the answer. as interesting as this discover experience was for me i want plex to continue pushing for this functionality and taking it even further.
Can you at least communicate if we will be able to disable Discover or not at some point in the future? The lack of transparency around this has been disheartening.
See, this is the problem. Plex wants to define it instead of allowing us, the admins, to define it for our families and friends.
Plex’s definition of “questionable content” can be much different than mine, and probably is based on what you make money off of in “Free Movies & Shows.”
