Features, settings & updates

[bnun]

Hi Danny, we have been having the same issue and are ready to get rid of all Roku devices. This morning at 8:24am, my toddler had to see an ad for Dragula, a drag queen show. I just don't understand why Roku doesn't provide parental controls for the ads displayed on the home screen. As is, we don't click on any of the ads and constantly have to be ready to jump back with the controller so the kids don't see sexually explicit or scary images. If you allowed us to tailor the ads to kid and family friendly, we might actually click on them and you would make more money. That's a much more profitable business model than making your customers angry.

[Hannah-Roku]

Hi there @CrankyNathan, we understand how this can be concerning, especially with young children, and we value your feedback. We'll be reaching out shortly via private message to collect more info. Please keep an eye on your inbox here in the Roku Community. 

[RokuDanny-R]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the posts.

We have passed along your feedback and concerns to the appropriate Roku team.

Thanks,
Danny

[Noname800]

Hi all. Roku will not make any changes to this obviously from this thread. My six year old uses our Roku to watch Disney or Netflix but first must see ads for horror movies, transgender tv shows or other non family appropriate ads. In reading thru this thread it's clear Roku has two methods. One is having some customer say "go try something else" the other is the Roku person saying. "Can you give us more details?" When it's a huge well known problem. The ad blocking router thing one user suggested also does not work. It may work temporarily if you are that well versed in ip blocking (maybe 1 percent of people!) but Roku will just eventually change their ips. But their is a solution!. On your tv itself their is probably a channel player. On my LG tv I can hit the home button and it pops up Netflix,Hulu, Disney etc. Then I just select it and I'm watching my TV apps.  I bet your tv has an option for this too. Try hitting the home button and searching. We have four rokus and I've decided I'm done with Roku. We are using our TV app thing on the home button on the TV remote (not the Roku remote) and not messing with Roku anymore. Most of you probably have Roku on HDMI 1 or HDMI 2. So if you can't find your actual Television home settings try going to input or unplug the Roku. It's time to cut out the middleman that is Roku. Hey Roku if your reading this I'm one of the 150 million people who is fine with ads just not making my kids watch non family friendly ones. My gut tells me this post will be deleted by Roku but again. Try the home button on your actual TV. On mine it came preloaded with the big TV apps (Hulu, Netflix etc) and the lg content store let me add more. Bye Roku!

[BrettBrett]

Today is Thursday June 23rd, 2022. It's 10 a.m. in the morning. My kids go to watch Disney plus and there's a severed hand on the home screen advertising the "Saw" movie. Why can't Roku add an age filter on the device which blocks these inappropriate ads for violent R-rated movies? The advertisement is wasted because obviously my six-year-old isn't going to watch "Saw".

[PianoMan83]

I agree - just came here with the same complaints about gore and horror content displaying on the home screen (ex. "Saw" and "IT" ads). Roku TV customers are unable to access any apps on the tv without being shown these sidebar ads. I'm not sure Roku has strong legal footing for requiring all TV users to view content that would render a film PG-13+ without any parental controls. Fix this. Fix it quickly.

[Nelly_hnb7]

Nice to see a large ad about drag queens in my 8 year old sons bedroom on a Roku device I paid for. How do you stop this?? 

[Nelly_hnb7]

I’m furious that this **bleep** is targeted to kids on something I pay for. 

[atc98092]

Unfortunately, it's as @DBDukes mentioned. Roku does not provide any way to control the ads displayed on the home screen, and virtually every other streaming player does the same thing. The Apple TV is the one with the least ads, but anything running Android TV (Chromecast, Shield, Fire TV) has the same sort of ads on the home screen, again with zero control over them.

[Nelly_hnb7]

That is disturbing on so many levels. Thanks for the info. Apple TV it is then.