Channels & viewing

[RokuAustin · Accepted solution]

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@Andreajanelle wrote:

The ads on the Home Screen are far too scary for my 4 year old child. Today there is an ad for “twisted metal” with a scary clown holding a machete hanging out of an ice cream truck. We’ve also seen ads for Scream, Chucky, and many other shows and movies that are not appropriate for children directly on the Home Screen. We have the parental settings configured on the television but they do nothing to limit the inappropriate ads. This has been an issue for multiple years now. I will never buy another Roku product. 

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Hi there @Andreajanelle , and welcome to the Roku Community! We've introduced a new feature and wanted to tell you about it. Your preferences are important to us, and good news, you can now "skip" an ad on the Home Screen if it isn't to your liking. Just highlight the ad, press the * button on your remote, and choose the option to "Hide this ad," and press the OK button on your remote.

Learn more about hiding an ad here.

Keep in mind that this will only apply to the ad on the home screen. 

We hope you enjoy this new feature.

Happy Streaming!

[JustSayin]

While I do appreciate learning about the ability to hide specific ads on the Home screen, you are still missing the point of what these parents are saying:

They shouldn't have to hide the ads in the first place. Your default assumption should be that you don't even ALLOW ads on the Home page for content that obviously would come with the disclaimer "parental discretion is advised". That is NOT a difficult concept.

Right now there is an ad on my Home screen for local news streaming. I've seen ads for children's shows and many other family-friendly shows. Those advertisers exist. Roku just needs to have the responsibility and integrity to say "This ad is not appropriate for all ages and therefore you cannot have an advertising spot on the Home screen where anyone might see it, that's the wrong forum for your ad".

While we're at it, Home page ads are obnoxious in the first place. They do not inspire me to watch anything and simply make me annoyed with both Roku and the advertisers. Roku did just fine before these ad spaces came along. You have wonderful wallpapers that I can't properly enjoy any more because you got greedy.

I also agree with other community members that if you're watching something that is G or PG content, you should NOT be seeing ads for R content. Don't tell me you can't control that because that's nonsense. Yes, you could. You just haven't been motivated to make that a priority. Yet.

Finally, your new feature does NOTHING to address the other Home page ad space (the one in the lower left corner).

We should all be able to totally disable all Home page ads. Especially if you're not even going to use common sense about what is appropriate for potential viewers of all ages and backgrounds to see on a simple menu page.

[OwnerofDevices]

@JustSayinI have 3 kids and not a single kid has found the Roku home screen to be scary. You might be better off with another streaming device like an Apple TV device that doesn't have ads like Roku.

[JustSayin]

OwnerofDevices,

If you're kids haven't been scared, I'm truly glad for you. And them.

That said, I know of several parents who allow their small children to watch slasher movies (not saying that you do, just noting that some kids are totally desensitized to content that might be over the top for even some adults).

That doesn't invalidate other parents' experience.

It also doesn't change what Roku's default assumption should be about what is appropriate to display on a menu screen.

I don't have kids, but I do agree with those other parents; I've seen plenty of disgusting ads on the Home page and I don't watch content that would suggest that those shows would appeal to me. I'm talking about devices that I have exclusive access to. Ads that I would feel the need to apologize to parents for if they were visiting with their kids and they saw it.

Thank you very much for the kind recommendation of an alternate device, but that wasn't my point. Still, I'll keep that in mind when it's time to replace streaming devices. I find the presence of the ads very irritating even when the actual content of the ads is okay. Nice to know that Apple doesn't do that.

Roku went for many years with zero advertising on the Home screen. If they insist on monetizing that space now (greedy), they could certainly do it more responsibly.

A much better choice would be to return the Home screen the happy space that it was before they put ads on it. 

[Angrymom4567]

I'm already in the works to replace my Roku devices with Apple devices after reading the recommendation. I'm over it. If rather pay more and enjoy my experience than save money and end up angry and frustrated. 7 tvs in the house..4 already replaced with Apple products. On way to all 7 being replaced this week. Done with it. If they won't listen, then we should all hit them where it hurts.. In the bank account. Then maybe they'll listen. My tvs aren't going to someone else. They're going to a landfill. Yeah.. I'm that irritated. Don't care how much it costs. It's the principle. Money matters less than my principles. Integrity still counts for something these days. Bye Roku. Don't expect to see you around much longer. You pooed where you eat.

[Prplprincess15]

This is not a solution, this is a bandaid for 1 ad. I can't even go on the Roku app and put on a kids show without randomly seeing scary trailers ( twisted metal ). Something needs to be done about this, my 4 year old is traumatized, and just saw the exorcist. 

[Ceece]

It is greedy and unethical to "allow" the device owner to "skip" an ad! Make us go to all the work so you can force feed more advertising! Way to go Roku! you can guarantee next time I won't be buying a Roku TV! why would I buy such a device just so you can bloat yourself up at my expense!

[OwnerofDevices]

If you don't want ads then you need to buy an apple TV device.

[Irritating-Ads]

Hello, can you please tell us how to "just highlight the ad", I checked online it says "Select the ad using the directional pad on your Roku remote" then it says on new Roku remotes that's the OK button. so I clicked the OK button when the Roku Commercial I want to hide shows up, then I clicked star, I don't get pop windows that gives the option to hide it, instead I am taken to TV Settings to Sleep Screen etc.

@Andreajanelle , and welcome to the Roku Community! We've introduced a new feature and wanted to tell you about it. Your preferences are important to us, and good news, you can now "skip" an ad on the Home Screen if it isn't to your liking. Just highlight the ad, press the * button on your remote, and choose the option to "Hide this ad," and press the OK button on your remote.

[renojim]

@Irritating-Ads, you can only hide (some) ads that appear on the right side of the Roku Home Screen.  It sounds like you're trying to get rid of an ad that's playing during a video.  That's impossible.