Can't block explicit podcasts

[mkhstoll]

Plan

Premium Family

Country

USA

Device

multi

Operating System

multi

My Question or Issue

Hey Spotify,

I am the mother of teen and tween boys and I'm paying you for a service called Premium FAMILY. I did my research and signed up because I was able to block explicit content for family members, and I did. But guess what, it doesn't apply to podcasts. So guess what? Of course my teen has been using his Spotify account to search up podcasts with explicit sexual content. They aren't hard to find. I want someone from customer service to contact me NOW. It is not hard to allow Premium FAMILY managers to block or allow specific podcasts, or to apply content filters and explicit flagging to podcasts. Please tell me there is a solution I'm just not seeing. Or that there is a fix planned SOON. Or maybe Spotify isn't the right place for families. That's cool. Plenty of other options.

[mkhstoll]

Hey there @mkhstoll!

Thanks for reaching out to the Community! 

The Explicit filter also works for podcasts and videos but the the 'explicit' tag won't always show up -  it is recorded in the metadata of the podcast.

Content we identify as explicit is based on information we receive from rights-holders, so it’s possible some explicit content will still play even if you’ve blocked explicit-rated content. 

If you'd like to report a podcast as explicit you can reach out to our support team here.

You can also suggest the option to report podcast as explicit via the app on our Ideas board so that it could get support from other users as well. Take a look at this page to see how to post an Idea.

If you're interested in how ideas work and how your feedback reaches the right teams here, check this page out.

Let us know if there's anything else we can do for you. We'd be happy to help.

[mkhstoll]

Hi, everyone @JoeQ @mkhstoll 

Just to confirm what @Elena said above, there is already a suggestion on the Idea Exchange board that requests the possibility to report some explicit or offensive podcasts. You can leave your support to this idea to make that it arrives Staff ears.

• [All Platforms][Podcasts] Report offensive/explicit podcasts

Keep in mind that ideas with the status Closed - Not Enough Votes are still monitored by Spotify.

If you have any other further questions or need more help, let me know! I'd love to help!

Best Regards,
hezorg

[joelster]

Thanks @novy - please can you be more specific about where we report these explicit podcasts? That link you provided seems to be a general support link and knowing exactly where to post (or which category to use) to report an explicit podcast not marked as such is important. Please assist.

[Ver]

Hey @joelster,

Thanks for getting back to us 🙂

You can contact our support team through the Contact Us button when you click on the link @Elena mentioned. 

The details regarding the reporting will be dealt with accordingly during this procedure.

We'll be right here if you have any further questions.
 

[joelster]

Thanks Ver - I spoke to Megan via support chat and she was very helpful. It turns out the podcasts in question are now flagged as explicit, although you have to go into them to see that and there are fairly graphic descriptions on these podcasts too. So I will see if there is a "Filter explicit podcasts/music" feature request instead as I would not like those coming up in my or my children's searches.

[Eni]

Hey there @joelster,

Thanks for getting back to us. 

We're glad to hear that our Support team could help you with that.

You can filter the explicit content for the Premium Family members following the steps here. 

If you need help with anything else, just let us know. 

Cheers!

[mouwthe]

You do realize that, even if this podcast is now blocked by marking it explicit, my daughter has already consumed some of this content and Spotify's recommendation algorithm will continue to suggest related content??? This why she is unable to resume using Spotify - you are continuing to promote pornographic material to children! Spotify's stance on this is unacceptable - and I'm not going to become an activist on your forums just so Spotify can make the corrections that they should have seen as a liability before offering this content to families.

[RandomMarius]

There seems to be no simple way to block/flag these... reporting them in a support call seems to have no effect. There are hardcore **bleep** podcasts that have been running for MONTHS available to children.

case in point: spotify:show:1DexYD377KGDiKiXZZfNvP

Also, reporting them is not a solution... at that time the damage has been done. We do monitor our children, but many parents do not. What happens when they find out you put podcast profits before (just rudimentary) child safety?

Premium Family ... a joke.

[RandomMarius]

my feeling exactly!

[nzd31155]

totally agree... this is lax and unacceptable.  Relying on content creator's metadata is lazy.  Why don't you transcribe the podcast and run NER over it?  I know it's possible as I work in that industry.  you only have to create an explicit vocabulary and run every transcribe through it and add the explicit tags.  simple.  The question is, do you care enough about your audiences to offer that.  Now that would be a 'family premium' worthy of the title....

[musiclistener99]

Yep, my wife just pointed this out to me yesterday.  Adult-themed podcasts are showing up as recommendations on an account that is exclusively being used for children's podcasts and our 8- and 10- year old have access to it.  No way to simply mark podcasts to not show up in recommendations.  A simple blacklist would be a start.  I could imagine adults would use it to keep children's podcasts off of their homescreen too!

Unfortunately, if there's no way around this we'll probably be moving to another service.

[Guinch]

Yes, I logged on to the Spotify Premium "Family" account used by my 7-year-old son. The first item in the suggested podcast list... "The ShitShow"... the picture for the podcast was two topless (but covered) blondes.

Spotify should not rely on the content provided to mark them as explicit or expect customers to log them as explicitly. With the technology available to a company like Spotify it is not impossible to set up algorithms to automatically filter this kind of item from kids' accounts.  

Here I'll help with the first one... If the title contains the**bleep**" - exclude it from family accounts!!!

Been with Spotify from the start but there are several other options now. I'm having a look at the best one for my family to use as Spotify does not seem to be taking the Premium Family offering seriously.

[joelster]

Some (limited) blocking can be applied on the Premium Family as per these steps: https://support.spotify.com/article/explicit-content/

[SpotifyJJ]

So let me get this straight.  Spotify still provides completely inadequate child account management tools.  Meanwhile its algorithm now is pushing explicit content toward kids and teenagers.  All while the executives say there is nothing they can do and it is up to content creators to be better?  

I have cancelled my subscription.

[mkhstoll]

Yup! You’ve nailed.

I also cancelled. Plenty of choices. Nothing special about Spotify. Unless you just *want* your kids to be able to geeky access **bleep**, misinformation and hate content while tucked snugly in bed. In that case, it’s the best!

Spotify execs, welcome to the cancel culture.

[sallygill]

My 11 year old son has this week accessed pornography podcasts on his account, despite there being an Explicit Content restriction. I’ve spent hours trying to get Spotify to sort out their restrictions and take responsibility and they don’t care. Spotify are negligent and have no interest in the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults. This is an issue that needs to be dealt with at a higher level. Spotify are interested solely in profits. In the meantime I’m now dealing with an 11 year old little boy who is very upset and confused. I’m utterly heartbroken. 

[RandomMarius]

Spotify does not care about children. They are a company. They care about profits.

They make it way too difficult for parents to report these.

"Family Account" - a joke.

I have switched my family account away from Spotify, and have been happy for weeks now.

[Guinch]

This is a Spotify community conversation and probably not public enough to gain any attention from Spotify. If you experience this issue then I suggest also posting to more public social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc. Include a link to this post and some hashtag that highlights the issue (something like #spotifypornforkids). 

Once this issue is shared a bit more maybe Spotify will put some effort in to not providing inappropriate material to our children on their "kids" accounts.

(As this is a Spotify platform I expect this post to be deleted pretty quickly 🙂 ).

[fer00]

Have Spotify find a solution. I just was looking for instrumental music and a very explicit sexual podcast showed up. If you don´t give a solution to this I will unsubscribe from my premium account. 

[singboy]

**bleep** **bleep** spotify, i have the filter on but my boy just said something about his mum's **bleep**, and it came directly from a podcast called "sexy babe plays with herself on her bed". He is 7. He also found "**bleep** lovers" and "zendaya masturbates", while searching under the word "ass" for a funny song. Get it sorted now, no facility to flag these, no facility on your side to pre filter the titles, no ability to protect our kids. Your responses of send an email to support are weak and lacking in any actions taken on board by you as persons represemting the customer facing part of the business. You should be ensuring that there is an operational response to this feedback, not just words. Suggestion boxes are not appropriate, leave it out

[singboy]

Lol, you filter out bad words in this forum automatically, but not in your app. What a shambles of lies, sure, let's all send an email to support suggestions box, black hole,  while you say there is nothing you can do, but evidence in this forum indicates otherwise

[rebeccalamae]

I was excited to my son Spotify only to find out there is a slew of sexual podcasts. Really disgusting content. Then I find out after research we as the parents are supposed to go through all the podcasts and mark them explicit. What a POOR resolution! The power of the free market is that we as parents can find new platforms. However....this is a missed opportunity for Spotify. And apparently the Spotify moderators have no kids, are in there 20's, or do not care about the customer. To tell subscribers there has to be more votes in order to make change is leading from behind. Protecting peoples kids from sexual content should not need any votes. It should be built in. What a failure on Spotifys behalf. Spotify.....do not respond to this post with a rehearsed answer. Only respond with REAL change.