Parental controls and the unacceptable spotify attitude.

[six1eight]

Plan

Premium

Country

Greece 

My Question or Issue

Dear Spotify Support and Leadership Team,

I am writing to you not only as a long-time paying customer, but as a concerned parent who is deeply disappointed by Spotify’s current stance on parental controls—specifically the complete lack of options to restrict visual content for children on Family accounts.

At present, it is impossible for parents to prevent children from accessing videos, even when we are paying for a Family plan that should, by definition, support parental oversight. The only option we are given is to vote for a future feature, with no timeline, no commitment, and no assurance that this vital safeguard will ever be implemented. Meanwhile, children are exposed to visuals that may not be age-appropriate, and parents are left with an unacceptable choice: either allow unrestricted access or prohibit Spotify entirely.

You do offer a Kids app, but it is not equivalent to the main Spotify application in functionality or music catalog. It is not an adequate substitute—especially for older children or teens who deserve safe access to music without being forced into a less capable app.

It is common sense—and consistent with industry standards—that parents should have the ability to restrict visual content on devices used by minors. Netflix, YouTube, Apple, Amazon, and many others already offer these features. Spotify’s refusal to provide even basic parental control tools is irresponsible from a safety standpoint, and frankly, alarming for a platform used by millions of minors.

If Spotify does not offer a clear commitment—with a timeline—to add parental control options restricting video access, I will take the following steps:

1. Contact major parent advocacy organizations and encourage them to raise public awareness of this gap in child safety.

2. Engage with online parenting communities and consumer forums to highlight Spotify’s failure to protect young users.

3. Explore alternative music services that respect families and give parents the tools they need to keep their children safe.

4. Consider filing formal complaints with consumer protection groups regarding inadequate safety features on a platform marketed to families.

Spotify has every opportunity to solve this responsibly and avoid a growing backlash from families who expect better—especially from a company that actively markets Family subscriptions.

We do not want to leave Spotify. We want to trust it.

I urge you to take this issue seriously and respond with more than a link to a vote-based suggestion board. Parents need action, not promises filtered through popularity polls.

I expect a formal reply outlining how Spotify intends to address this matter.

Sincerely,
A concerned parent and Spotify Family subscriber

[Ivelina]

Hello @six1eight,

Thank you for posting this thread in the Community and welcome!

We read your post and understand your concern about the ability for parents to prevent children from accessing videos on Spotify. This is actually something that we've been working on and in a few markets, managed accounts for young listeners are now available. 

Managed accounts are a way for Premium Family plan managers to give young listeners (under 13 or market equivalent) their own space to explore music, with parents and guardians still in control. Managers have control over the managed accounts via their settings in several ways, including a toggle to hide video and Canvas. More info you can read in this Newsroom article. 

We at Spotify are always working on expanding helpful features so that our users like yourself have a better experience. However, we are not able to give any strict timelines for when managed accounts would be coming to more/all markets.

At the moment, I'd like to mention that there is an existing Live Idea here about the option to add a feature to remove video content on Premium Family. I recommend that you add your vote in order to show your support and you can also subscribe to the thread in order not to miss any updates. 

Thank you once again for your input, your feedback is highly appreciated. Should you need assistance with anything else, we're just a post away. 

Take care!