Under the new terms and conditions implemented this summer, the search engine giant has suspended campaigns that feature “Unacceptable content: Teen porn concepts.” The company does not exactly state what constitutes unacceptable content, but stresses that even though the girls in question might be of legal age, it will not accept the AdWords campaign.
The official response from Google after rejecting the AdWords campaign reads, “At this time, Google policy does not permit the advertisement of websites that contain ‘teen porn concepts.’ As noted in our advertising terms and conditions, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site.
Unacceptable Content: Google believes strongly in freedom of expression and therefore offers broad access to content across the web without censoring search results. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver. Please note that both your ad and keywords have been suspended at this time.”
No further explanation is given.
Adult affiliate programs have been deeply affected by the policy change, having campaigns suspended pending revision or cancelled outright, according to Platinum Bucks Affiliate Manager Mario Amaral, who said the “barely legal teen” concept is immensely popular in the adult content marketplace.
“Teens sell really well to surfers,” Amaral told XBIZ. “But webmasters have to watch very closely how they promote this content on the Internet and on search engines. Basically the rules are vague, but right now if we are going to play on Google’s court, we have to adhere to their rules. My advice is to re-think your keywords and always have a back up plan. Most of the webmasters who obtained the better placements are capable of getting them back. It’s just unfortunate that a company as large as Google would not be more diplomatic.”