Inappropriate trailers not blocked on parental settings

[Lynne75]

Hello - just an update for anyone following - had the below response off Sky:

Firstly, we would like to apologies for any upset which may have been caused. We can assure you it is never our intention to offend or upset our customers.   

A number of images, of varying strength, for The Black Phone are currently featured on the Homepage of our User Interface at different times throughout the day, depending on the strength of the image. We believe your complaint refers to the stronger of these images, featuring a man wearing a mask with an artificial smile on it.   

This image, along with many others which occur in the more prominent areas of the User Interface, was reviewed by our internal compliance team before being published on the Homepage. Following this review, a restriction was applied to the image meaning that it should only appear within this section of the homepage following 7pm, when younger children are less likely to be watching. While there is somewhat of a darker undertone to the image, it was not felt that the image itself contained any graphic or explicitly frightening content which would require further restriction after this time.   

However, following receipt of your complaint we have reviewed this image again and have increased the restriction applied, meaning that the image in question should no longer appear within this section of the homepage before 9pm.   

We do appreciate you sharing your feedback with us and hope this will go some way to demonstrate that we take customer feedback very seriously. We would like to thank you for taking the time to contact us.  

[LuluM22]

I'm so pleased that the comments/emails sent got the appropriate response of removing the image. I hope this also raises questions of who is deciding that that image isn't sinister for any children that go to bed a little later than 7pm!! 

[Lynne75]

Exactly - I find it quite sinister so maybe I need to get to bed a bit earlier myself! 😂

[best+of+the+best]

I'd rather watch in Safe mode than go to bed early🤣🤣

[Lynne75]

Yeah.....I was joking 🙄 

[Mrs+QE]

@Lynne75 I'm glad they took your complaint seriously and have reconsidered the timing of when they show the image.

Apparently trailers aren't linked to Parent Control PIN numbers so trailers are still accessible to children. 

Unfortunately, at present individual trailers associated to films are not able to carry PIN controls. For this reason, each trailer is viewed by our dedicated compliance team who assign the trailer with an age rating which is edited onto the content. This allows at least for signalling as to the suitability of the trailer for viewing

Due to the inability for PIN to be attached, any trailer that is viewed and considered to be of suitability for 18+ is not used on the service. These trailers are either edited to be suitable at a lower age rating, or where this is not possible, they are not used.

So be aware children can access any trailer. 

[Lynne75]

That's not ideal is it??

[Shabalaka]

I just heard my 7 yr old say to me "I,m not old enough to watch Hellraiser...." Im like how does he even know about that movie... and it appears in the Recordings and Previously Watched section (So like the Box Art) I do not know about other parents but I am certainly not keen on the idea of my little boy seeing pinhead all the time he tursn on the sky box to watch Youtube Kids....  I am hoping that my boy does not have nightmare's about pinhead... I honestly thought that with the parental settings on that things like that would not be shown it,s almost like its not considered the box art of Hellraiser as "18" and that means it can be spotted by minors. 

I think any film that has a 18 rating and parental mode has been enabled should be hidden away in either a "Adult" section which requires the pin to get into to watch previously watched movies or have a default "Sky 18+" Thumbnail Image.

I dont know if i can delete the recording to remove the poster / box art but agian this is a bit inconvenient as you will not always remember to delete the recordings. 

Super disappointed that this is a possibility . Please Sky update the boxes to make these changes or something similar.

[TimmyBGood]

---

@Shabalaka wrote:

almost like its not considered the box art of Hellraiser as "18"

---

I suspect that's because it isn't rated as such, and as far as I know there's no requirement to do so.

A box art image (or these days a digital thumbnail) wouldn't itself come under the BBFC ratings system: the more general regulation of display of obscene material would apply but that has a whole different set of standards with a far higher threshold for what is not permitted.

[Shabalaka]

While I agree that it's hard for images to be restricted by an age filter, Its not impossible otherwise lets go to extreme this would indicate it,s perfectly acceptable to have a hardcore [removed] image as a thumbnail for a movie which would NOT get filtered through on the homepage as inappropriate for children. 

Maybe as an option they could add a "Remove After Watching" option when watching a movie from Sky Cinema this would also remove the thumbnail which I had to do manually by going through my recordings and deleting all the movies which I deemed had inappropriate thumbnails for a sub 7 yr old and might be deemed scary, (Being a horror movie fan that was quite a few...) lol

I have noticed that The Batman although a 15 I purchased from the Sky Store I can only Archive (Which I would assume will hide the artwork also) 

---

@TimmyBGood wrote:

---

@Shabalaka wrote:

almost like its not considered the box art of Hellraiser as "18"

---

I suspect that's because it isn't rated as such, and as far as I know there's no requirement to do so.

---

I think that Sky do have a requirement to update the boxes to reflect this as a lot of customers are probably unaware of the nasty's that their underage children could be viewing image wise when they are going to Youtube Kids.

Moderator note: language removed

[TimmyBGood]

---

@Shabalaka wrote:

---

I think that Sky do have a requirement to update the boxes to reflect this as a lot of customers are probably unaware of the nasty's that their underage children could be viewing image wise when they are going to Youtube Kids.

---

Realistically at this point Q is a mature product (launched in 2016) and unlikely to receive that kind of update.  Sky (or rather Comcast) is frankly more interested in a streaming future, particularly given satellite distribution appears to have a distinctly finite lifespan.

I would add, though, that Glass/Stream has no user control over the display of images either.

[Chodley]

---

@Shabalaka wrote:

While I agree that it's hard for images to be restricted by an age filter, Its not impossible otherwise lets go to extreme this would indicate it,s perfectly acceptable to have a hardcore [removed] image as a thumbnail for a movie which would NOT get filtered through on the homepage as inappropriate for children. 

Maybe as an option they could add a "Remove After Watching" option when watching a movie from Sky Cinema this would also remove the thumbnail which I had to do manually by going through my recordings and deleting all the movies which I deemed had inappropriate thumbnails for a sub 7 yr old and might be deemed scary, (Being a horror movie fan that was quite a few...) lol

I have noticed that The Batman although a 15 I purchased from the Sky Store I can only Archive (Which I would assume will hide the artwork also) 

---

@TimmyBGood wrote:

---

@Shabalaka wrote:

almost like its not considered the box art of Hellraiser as "18"

---

I suspect that's because it isn't rated as such, and as far as I know there's no requirement to do so.

---

I think that Sky do have a requirement to update the boxes to reflect this as a lot of customers are probably unaware of the nasty's that their underage children could be viewing image wise when they are going to Youtube Kids.

Moderator note: language removed

---

They meant no legal requirement.