Google Changes Its Policy On Advertising To Exclude The Adult Industry

Anyone that's ever used Google to search for porn or porn related words know that the site is a notorious stickler for censoring such search terms. Well, they've now made it official that they're taking a hard line stance against any advertisers looking to market "adult content."

In an interesting think piece, Stephen Yangielowicz of XBIZ (link below) breaks down Google's new policy, which advertisers were informed of via e-mail.

“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,” the Google e-mail states. “When we make this change, Google will disapprove all ads and sites that are identified as being in violation of our revised policy … We ask that you make any necessary changes to your ads and sites to comply so that your campaigns can continue to run.”

In an interesting turn of events, this was apparently instituted to appease a ridiculous right-wing group called Morality in Media. 

“For two years in a row we have placed Google on our Dirty Dozen List of top pornography facilitators in America [and] launched a public campaign to get thousands of ordinary citizens to contact Google by email and phone an urge the company to get out of the porn business for the sake of our children and families. Talk about a David and Goliath story!” MIM’s Executive Director, Dawn Hawkins, wrote, adding, “We also met with Google executives and we pushed hard for the cause of defending dignity … Google executives also have children and are as concerned about the influence of pornography on their children as we are. That was a breakthrough for us and we pressed hard because of it.”

Good, now that the children are protected, perhaps we can discuss the actual ramifications of this decision. 

According to Adrian from AdultSEOPartners.com, “Ultimately, Google’s success relies on its ability to maintain market share, and a purge of adult from organic results would certainly shift a large portion of their market over to Bing. Disallowing adult from AdWords doesn't affect their market share; it only affects revenue from adult advertisers. So moving forward, focusing on organic rankings is the best option for adult marketers to maintain their valuable Google traffic.”

And so the whole saga just goes on and on, with companies trying to shun the adult industry, and the corporations and entities that typically call for less regulation and interference having no problem with instituting their views and values on others as it suits their own ends. I think it's important for these holier than thou types to ask themselves one simple question: What Would Jesus Jerk Off To?

Via XBIZ