A change in policy on AdWords that Google announced in March has now gone into effect, banning promotion of “sexually explicit content” from its advertising network across the search engine and other sites – a decision that has been welcomed by an anti-porn group Morality in Media.
Google Inc. formally informed its advertising partners this week that any ads peddling adult entertainment will not appear on its advertising networks, according to Daily Tech.
Google has also posted a set of guidelines on what advertisers cannot promote, which includes “graphic depictions of sexual acts; content with underage or non-consensual sexual themes, including child sexual abuse content; and services that may be interpreted as providing sexual acts in exchange for compensation.”
Google added, “We don’t allow this content regardless of whether it meets applicable legal restrictions around this kind of content.”
Google AdWords Keyword Planner reveals that more than 350 million searches for the words sex, porn, free porn and porno were made in May, and “porn” was one of the most common searches on the engine.
Google had recently written to advertisers, saying, “Beginning in the coming weeks, we’ll no longer accept ads that promote graphic depictions of sexual acts including, but not limited to, hardcore pornography; graphic sexual acts including sex acts such as masturbation; genital, anal, and oral sexual activity.”
Google explained that it will disapprove all ads and sites that are identified as being in violation of their revised policy. “Our system identified your account as potentially affected by this policy change. We ask that you make any necessary changes to your ads and sites to comply so that your campaigns can continue to run.”
