Amazon has apologized after a bug caused it to mistakenly show a child a 15-rated movie when they were trying to watch a PG-rated film.
The child's parent paid to rent Diary of a Wimpy Kid on the company's Prime Video service, but they soon realized it was the wrong streaming of Love and Other Drugs, which the British Board of Film Classification says contains “strong sex and sexual references.”
They lodged a complaint with media regulator Ofcom, which found that Amazon was breaking its rules.
Amazon has apologized and fixed the problem, which it said was caused by the movie licensing firm sharing the same code behind the scenes when it was supposed to be unique.
The BBC has approached Amazon for comment.
According to Ofcom's report, the tech giant said the issue was resolved in “less than 48 hours” but in that time 122 customers tried to watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
It said it had “updated existing internal processes” to prevent similar errors in the future.
Ofcom did not fine Amazon for the error, but said the company had broken the rules.
“The complainant said that they had rented a film for their young children to watch, but after the selected content began to play, the complainant learned that a different film containing strong sexual content had in fact been shown,” the regulator said.
“The complainant stated that they contacted the service provider by phone three times but never received a call back. The complainant then lodged a complaint with Ofcom.
“Parents and guardians could access Diary of a Wimpy Kid on the basis that their children were comfortable viewing it, perhaps without adult supervision (as the applicant did in this case).”
