U.K. media regulator Ofcom ruled that Amazon breached broadcasting rules after viewers attempting to rent the family film "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" on Prime Video were shown a sexually explicit romantic comedy.
The breach followed a complaint from a parent who said they rented "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" in September to watch with their young children but were served "Love & Other Drugs," a 15-rated film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway that contains explicit sexual material. The rating restricts viewers to those aged 15 and over and is comparable to an R-rated film.
Ofcom found that more than 100 customers were affected by the same error, Deadline reported.
"The complainant said they had rented the film for their young children to watch, but after the selected content began playing, the complainant became aware that the film that had actually played was a different film containing strong sexual content," Ofcom said in its published ruling.
According to the regulator, the complainant attempted to contact Amazon three times to report the issue but received no response, prompting the escalation of the matter to Ofcom.
Amazon told Ofcom that the incident stemmed from a technical error involving its licensed content. Amazon said the mix-up was caused by a licensing partner that used the same internal code for two different films, the BBC reported.
As a result, customers selecting "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" were incorrectly routed to "Love & Other Drugs."
Ofcom said 122 customers tried to watch "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" during the glitch. Amazon said customer complaints alerted it to the problem, which was fixed within 48 hours.
Amazon apologized and said it had taken steps to prevent the error from happening again.
Amazon said it now requires content partners to use unique identifiers for each film and has added checks to prevent titles from being mismatched.
Ofcom noted that the affected film was offered as a rental rather than being included in the Prime Video subscription catalogue.
As a result, it was not subject to the same parental controls and child profile safeguards that apply to subscription content, increasing the risk that children could be exposed to inappropriate material.
Ofcom said Amazon breached rules designed to protect children from harmful content.
"Ofcom acknowledged Amazon's assurances that it had updated its procedures to prevent this issue occurring again," the regulator said.
Amazon falls under Ofcom's oversight for on-demand video services, with the regulator's powers recently expanded under the Media Bill.
The ruling marks the latest occasion on which the streaming service has been found in breach of the code.
Last year, Ofcom upheld a complaint concerning a 2022 Filipino film that included scenes involving sexual activity between adults in the presence of a baby.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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