December 16, 2025, 1:37 pm | Read time: 2 minutes

Certain content is simply not suitable for a cozy movie night with the whole family. Excessive violence scenes are obviously included, and the storyline should also be sparing with innuendos. However, that was not the case when numerous customers unexpectedly watched “Love and Other Drugs” on Amazon Prime Video.

Prime Video Showed Families “Love and Other Drugs”

It should be noted that “Love and Other Drugs” is by no means a terrible film. After all, it’s a romantic mainstream comedy from Hollywood, featuring superstars Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in the lead roles. In Germany, the FSK (a German film rating system) has given it a harmless rating for ages 12 and up. With the so-called “Parental Guidance” regulation of the Youth Protection Act, children as young as 6 could have watched it in theaters with their parents.

Here you will find content from third-party providers

To interact with or display third-party content, we need your consent.

In order to display embedded content, your consent to the processing of personal data, which can be revoked at any time (via the switch or via “Revoke tracking and cookies” at the bottom of the page), is required. Data may be transferred to third countries such as the USA (Art. 49 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). By switching to “on” you agree. You can find more information here.

In the United Kingdom, however, the view was somewhat different. There, the film is rated for ages 15 and up due to “strong sex, sexual references, and [vulgar] language,” as reported by “Deadline.” The local authority believes the title is truly not suitable for children.

But one day, when families wanted to stream the children’s book adaptation “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” they ended up watching “Love and Other Drugs” on Prime Video. It wasn’t until the first sexual content appeared that the mistake was noticed. Hundreds are said to have been affected by this incident.

Amazon Apologizes

Because customers initially tried in vain to contact Amazon about this, they turned to the British media regulator Ofcom. There, a violation of Amazon’s own guidelines was found.

Also interesting: Fans Angry! Amazon Prime Video Commits Cardinal Sin for Film Fans

The online retailer stated that it corrected the error after 48 hours and apologized for it. Furthermore, Amazon asked content partners for unique identifiers for all films and updated internal processes to prevent such incidents from happening again. Ofcom emphasizes that “Love and Other Drugs” was not available in the Prime Video subscription but was available for rent online. Therefore, settings for a potential children’s profile did not apply.

This is not the first time Amazon has come under Ofcom’s scrutiny. In 2024, a user first alerted the authority to Amazon because a film featured sex scenes between adults with a baby always present. The film in question was the Filipino movie “Pamasahe.”

This article is a machine translation of the original German version of TECHBOOK and has been reviewed for accuracy and quality by a native speaker. For feedback, please contact us at info@techbook.de.