WARNING: Discover/Watchlist and children concern

General Discussions
,
1

As my 5 years old boy had a really bad experience yesterday with the new Watchlist feature and as I see that he is not the only one, I would like to give a warning to all the parents that are managing there kids users account.

Yesterday I had my kid see the trailer of the horror movie Dawn of the Dead, he was completly shocked and made nightmares all the night.

How the hell did that happened?
I’m managing my boy user account, only let him see few cartoons movies and few shows for children. I am using a Sharing Label, which is his name, to feed his account with videos. So he could only sees the few videos labeled with his name, nothing else and it worked perfectly until yesterday.
While he was watching is favorite show “Noddy”, he added it to the new Watchlist. Then, he goes on the Watchlist, clicked on his Noddy show, scroll down and sees recommandations (That weren’t labeled with his name, advertised recommandation!).
First one is the row was the horror movie.
I don’t even talk about how he was shocked and how angry I am about this situation, because it is beyond what I would be allowed to right in this forum.

Someone on reddit told me that within a few clicks, he was able, from his child account, to go from the kid movie Superworm to Freddy VS Jason, another folk here wrote that it could lead to “non-kid friendly” videos and I’m sure there is a lot of parents out there that already or will have this f… bad experiences!

Plex, do something about it! I only use plex to watch my own content and share my own content with my kid and family.
I have get back the control of what my boy will watch!

11 Likes
2

Does this happen when your kid uses your main account?
From all I’ve seen so far, Discover isn’t yet available to managed users (who could have a restriction profile)… Plex claiming this being pretty much the reason why managed users cannot yet use it.

1 Like
3

This can happen when your kids are REQUIRED to use the main PLEX account to access another Plex server that is being shared to you.

I am doing this with some of my friends. I provide them RESTRICTED access to my PLEX content in an effort to provide kid-friendly media access to their family (plex friend). However, PLEX has decided that they should have no way of turning off “Discovery”, “Movies & Shows”, “Live TV” and all the rest of the “Plex” media sources. Instead they can only “unpin” the content and hope their kids don’t find it. Now Plex is granting two new ways of getting to that content: Watchlists and Search results.

This is completely unacceptable. Plex should be helping us, as parents, protect our kids. Not shoving objectionable content onto us and our kids in an effort to make more money.

2 Likes
4

Discover is not, but the Watchlist is. With a managed account you can add stuff from your local content to the watchlist. While looking at your stuff in the watchlist it shows the vod services where it’s available and recommendations.

2 Likes
5

I just confirmed. My kids’ “Managed User” account IS ABLE to add a movie to the Watchlist, and from there the kids have access to ALL the “recommended” movies and their content.

I conducted the test on the latest version of Plex on Roku: 7.0.7.7661-cc543783a-Plex

Again, users who are “plex friends” to other outside Plex servers do not even have the option to create Managed Users that would have extra restrictions.

2 Likes
6

So with a non-managed account with proper ratings being established, discover still shows content outside the set rating. Discover currently doesn’t curate content based on allowed ratings I presume. You’re right @Tangs, this needs to be address as a matter of urgency.

1 Like
7

Managed Accounts also show outside content TOO in the Watchlist. I just confirmed on Roku.

1 Like
8

How is this possible?
For a managed user to get an inappropriate item into his/her watchlist, said user needs to have access to that item in the first place. Which will be impossible if an age restriction is in place.

1 Like
10

I will add this point to this thread:

If Plex is able to prevent Managed Users from accessing Discover, Movies & Shows, Podcasts and all the other “Plex” sources of outside content, then why can’t they provide this option to ALL ACCOUNTS?

I emphasize “OPTION.” I understand why many people might like these new features, but why then can’t Plex give us the option if they already have the ability to turn it off or on?

11

No, they (Managed User) add an ALLOWED piece of content to their Watchlist. Next, they go to their Watchlist to view the content (movie’s) details. In those details there is a “Similar Titles in Free to Watch” and other outside content listing hubs. You can open those items up to see the trailers and full movies.

I do not use the “Content Restictions” in Plex. They are too vague. Instead I personally “Only Allow” content based on custom Labels.

5 Likes
12

Thank you for clarifying!
I agree, this needs to be adressed.

4 Likes
13

Well that’s some ‘holy crap’ territory.

Looks like I have to disable Plex now anywhere my daughter can see it. Completely unacceptable.

2 Likes
14

I’m very close to this as well and it is the last thing I wish to be doing. Plex has served me very well, but this constant move to forcing me to view outside content is not acceptable for my family or the families I share with. It isn’t what Plex sold me many years ago.

I’d be happy if Plex gave us the option to fully disable these types of features. I’d be a happy Plex user. And those who want the features, will be happy too.

Why doesn’t Plex want everyone to be happy? They have the ability to do so, but refuse to give it to us.

15

If all they did was limit to the content you’ve checked off (for example, none for me), then cool! Have at it.

But thats not what they’ve done. And its disturbing that a Plex dev has not addressed this, its been hours since you’ve commented, and there have been other posts by devs elsewhere.

16

It’s been years really. Everything under the “Plex” menu category is the same thing: “Movies & Shows”, “Podcasts”, “Live TV.” It is unrestricted access to outside content.

So, why is Plex refusing to allow us to turn off these items? That is the real question, and I don’t think we are going to like the answer. If that is the case, then Plex won’t like the action I need to take…leaving their service.

I did this many years ago with cable TV. I did the same with Netflix when I disagreed with their business model. I’m completely willing to do something similar again. I refuse to allow companies to push their content on me. I’m not a drone and my kids are totally worth the cost of protection.

17

“I do not use the “Content Restictions” in Plex. They are too vague. Instead I personally “Only Allow” content based on custom Labels.”

So you don’t restrict content based on content rating? What happens when you have a managed account that is controlled by content rating?

18

No difference whatsoever, I’ve tested it myself with my Kids profile which is content restricted as well as label restricted.

Edited: To be clear, with those restrictions in place - Rated R content absolutely comes up, trailers, NC-17, unrated, etc. With a G rated kids movie added to the watchlist.

19

Since the developers and employees aren’t replying, I’ve sent an email through the contact form to legal.

20

Ooof! Yeah they need to fix that. But don’t expect a fix to appear within a few hours of it being noticed, I am in no way associated with Plex but just want to set some expectations. Emergency patches are usually only done in absolute emergencies in the IT industry.

21

What do you think an email to legal is going to achieve?