Features, settings & updates

[familyfun]

We enjoy the Roku products, but we are frequently seeing horror and sexually-suggestive related advertisements on the home screen as soon we turn on the TV. We have toddlers and absolutely no interest in such material anyways. We have looked at the user manual, tried different settings on the TV and now we are turning to here. Is there a filter or any way to keep the advertisements at a family friendly level or do we need to remove Roku products from our home?

If possible, thanks!

[DBDukes]

@familyfun 

No, not the display of ads.

If you feel an ad is inappropriate insofar as the content of the ad (as opposed to what's being advertised, if you follow the difference), contact Roku directly: https://support.roku.com/contactus/

You can prevent any app being advertised from being installed by requiring a PIN on your account. For example, an ad for a horror movie channel would display, but the PIN would prevent it being installed.

[familyfun]

I appreciate the response but this is unfortunate. I am not sure how to make this clearer, but it is not just the aps we want to block. It is also the content of their advertisements displayed on the home screen. We do not want such images on our home screen just because we turn on the television to watch PBS kids or Disney films.

We understand the need for advertisements, but this is crazy that Roku would advertise itself as a family device but have zero way to block non family friendly advertisements. Even Pandora can do this! You simply turn off mature ads in settings and it adjusts them to be much more appropriate for children.

Again, thank you for the response but since Roku insists on taking away our choice of the content displayed on our TV screen, we are going somewhere else. They need to get with the program and let parents decide want they want displayed in their own homes.

Much Appreciated,

Disappointed Parents

[DBDukes]

@familyfun 

I provided a link to contact Roku directly. Did you use it?

If you want to go with another platform, certainly do that. However, go in with your eyes wide open.

Amazon integrates ads directly into the interface, rather than off to the side as Roku does. You won't escape ads that way.

Chromecast with Google TV and Android TV devices do the same.

Apple TV has the fewest ads, unless you look at the movies/TV shows they call "featured" as ads. They actually are, but are generally not thought of that way. You can get an idea of what the experience would be like by launching the Apple TV app on Roku. If you find its featured movies to not be acceptable to your standards, then you won't find any platform to meet your standards.

Apple TV is a good device. The newer model has the Siri remote, and some find it easier to use than the remote with the cheaper (previous, but still available) model.

[makaiguy]

Roku has not as yet instituted parental control over the Roku home screen ads despite numerous requests.

@RokuDanny-R, @RokuKariza-D -- take note.  Lack of this feature is driving a subset of customers away.

[familyfun]

We did open the link and this is not the solution. We are not concerned about the content within the aps because we do not watch those films. We are concerned about the advertisements for horror films and sexually suggestive advertisements that at times show up on the home screen. It does not matter now though since Roku seems to think that is still okay. Thank you for the responses but they are clearly not the solution to such an easy problem to fix.

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@DBDukes wrote:

@familyfun 

I provided a link to contact Roku directly. Did you use it?

If you want to go with another platform, certainly do that. However, go in with your eyes wide open.

Amazon integrates ads directly into the interface, rather than off to the side as Roku does. You won't escape ads that way.

Chromecast with Google TV and Android TV devices do the same.

Apple TV has the fewest ads, unless you look at the movies/TV shows they call "featured" as ads. They actually are, but are generally not thought of that way. You can get an idea of what the experience would be like by launching the Apple TV app on Roku. If you find its featured movies to not be acceptable to your standards, then you won't find any platform to meet your standards.

Apple TV is a good device. The newer model has the Siri remote, and some find it easier to use than the remote with the cheaper (previous, but still available) model.

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[renojim]

You could look into an ad blocking service or a router with ad blocking capability, but they come with their own issues.

[tpaskett]

No one is trying to “escape ads”. We just want more control so that inappropriate ads are not displayed to our children. Ads that are frightening in nature or overtly sexual are not appropriate for children, yet such ads are frequently displayed on the home page. 

[byrond]

I agree there are some other inappropriate ads that appear on the home screen, and it would be great to avoid them. One thing I have done on ours is disable tracking for ads. Perhaps the trade off to less tracking is allowing these ads to appear even though we don’t ever watch any such content. As a workaround, when I see an inappropriate ad, I will press the home button and then go back to the list of apps. This forces a different (hopefully less offensive) ad to appear. You just have to be quick on the draw, and we are the only ones controlling the remote in our house so far. I may look into an alternative platform as well. 

[carondesign]

Roku does not care they only care in the mighty dollar, heck they still have not been able to fix my device. I have a Roku deice and I cant even watch Roku Channel.