NSFW Podcast Recommendations Need to Stop.

[erisidae]

Most people complain about podcast recommendations being irrelevant and obvious ad placements, which is true. However, I and thousands of others have noted that Spotify consistently pushes NSFW content through podcasts, which my kids saw for the second time today. Maybe someone can explain why should I tolerate Spotify promoting pornographic content to minors.

I am a Premium subscriber and am the sole person using my subscription. My friends and children will occasionally play a song or playlist on my account, but despite this I am in FULL CONTROL of my listening history and habits. Today was the second time my kids noticed NSFW content in the podcast rec tab. It was an episode of "Good Pornin' America", a 'pro-pornography podcast run by s*x workers'. Charming.

Forum won't allow me to upload it, so here is a screenshot of the episode I was recommended: https://imgur.com/a/sSXexaV. I've previously been recommended "The Sh*t Show", which has a brazenly inappropriate NSFW cover.

Spotify, you cannot guarantee who is viewing a screen or consuming content at any given point. I understand that 18+ content is allowed to exist on the platform, but it is not acceptable to force-promote that content on the front page. You provide no option to dismiss or change podcast recs, or any option to set my account to "no NSFW podcasts please".

I'm not the only person in this position, and the community needs an answer for this problem.

Here is a list of answers I will not accept:
"We are marking this as Not Right Now." This problem needs to be solved today. By ignoring this issue you are, by negligence, promoting pornographic content to minors.

"Recommendations are based on your listening history." This is a lie. I do not listen to nor search for NSFW podcasts. The recs are in no way influenced by my listening habits.
"Recommendations are paid promotions." I don't care. They should not be presented to me or my children, especially without an option to dismiss or change.

"If you listen to more podcasts, your recommendations will improve." I should not be forced to cheese my Spotify algorithm to prevent my kids from seeing a podcast with the word "c*mshot" in the description. YOUR FORUM censored that word, please explain why it is not censored in my recs where you can't confirm the age of the viewer.

You've ignored this problem for several months, and it will continue to get bigger. I understand that losing my patronage is not an effective threat, but this is a substantial ethical issue that needs to be solved short-term, not eventually.

[leroybrock]

I just finished canceling my premium sub after nearly a decade, and you can too. Plenty of services are there to pick up new subscribers. 

[erisidae]

Absolutely true, and I will likely take your advice. I just see this as a larger issue for other parents and users.

[Jeremy]

Hi there folks,

Thank you for your posts and feedback here in the Community. We're really sorry to see that you feel this way.

We're always testing things by adding or removing features to make Spotify better overall and we’re constantly aiming to improve our features. We’re sorry that this means you’re not able to use Spotify like you wish to do at the moment.

There's currently these two ideas:

• [All Platforms] Customize Start Screen
• [All Platforms][Podcasts] Option to disable or hide podcasts entirely

We suggest that you leave a +VOTE and Subscribe to the ideas above for any updates regarding this.

Once again - thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it. Let us know if we can help you with anything else. 

Take care!

[Jfpwatson]

I had no idea so much pornography existed on Spotify. I made the mistake of listening to some. Now half my suggested Spotify recommendations are this!!!  I can't seem to stop it and I don't want the daily temptations. Looks like the only option is to cancel Spotify and subscribe to another service.