GOOGLELAND—Google Adwords has been contacting advertisers who trigger a sex alarm to let them know that a policy change announced in March is about to be implemented that prohibits ads that promote a bevy of sexual activities and services. Once the policy kicks in for real later this month, “Google will disapprove all ads and sites that are identified as being in violation of our revised policy.”
The email reads:
Dear AdWords Advertiser,
We're writing to remind you about a change to Google's advertising policies we announced in our Policy Change Log that may affect your AdWords account: https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/4271759
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.
When we make this change, Google will disapprove all ads and sites that are identified as being in violation of our 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.
Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
In March, Google announced the coming changes to its advertising policy, as follows:
The AdWords policies on adult sexual services, family status, and underage or non-consensual sex acts will be updated in late June 2014 to reflect a new policy on sexually explicit content. Under this policy, sexually explicit content will be prohibited, and guidelines will be clarified regarding promotion of other adult content. The change will affect all countries. We made this decision as an effort to continually improve users' experiences with AdWords. After the new policy goes into effect, the adult sexual services, family status, and underage or non-consensual sex acts policy pages will reflect this change.
Additional details about Google’s Adult Sexual Services policies can be found here, though the page will be updated to reflect the new policies once they are in effect.
