Ofcom has found Amazon Prime Video in breach of its UK on-demand rules after a customer renting Diary of a Wimpy Kid (rated PG by the British Board of Film Classification) was served a different title, Love & Other Drugs (15), containing strong sexual content.
The regulator said the incident raised protection concerns for under-18s under ODPS Rule 12, which requires on-demand providers to take appropriate measures so specially restricted material is not normally seen or heard by children.
According to Ofcom, the mix-up was caused by a metadata error from a content partner, which supplied both films with the same unique identifier. Amazon said its systems flagged the clash, but it was manually overridden in error. The platform said the issue was escalated and fixed in under 48 hours, and it has since tightened processes and pushed partners to ensure unique identifiers are used across catalogues.
Ofcom noted the title was rented/paid-for content (rather than included in Prime), and rentals are not available by default in children’s profiles. However, it said the error still risked exposing younger children because parents and carers would reasonably select a PG family film for unaccompanied viewing.
Amazon said 122 customers attempted to access Diary of a Wimpy Kid during the period affected. Ofcom also criticised the speed of response when potential harm is ongoing, while acknowledging Amazon’s remedial steps.
The problem had surfaced publicly earlier in November when customer reports described the wrong film playing when selecting Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
