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Display & Video 360 users must comply with this Google Ads policy. Visit the Display & Video 360 help center for additional restrictions.
It’s important that our advertising experience on Google products is useful, informative, and above all, safe for all our users. That’s why we work to ensure that the advertising content shown on Google’s products protects children, too.
Google’s Ad-serving Protections for Children policy implements safeguards for children, including:
- Disabling ads personalization
- Restricting sensitive ad categories
In addition to prohibiting ads from serving based on our existing policies, Google may limit ads in the categories below from serving to children. The restrictions apply on YouTube, Google Display Ads, and Display & Video 360 as of December 2023. We will expand to additional products over time.
Restricted categories and prohibited content
The following ad categories and content are restricted globally for children.
| Category | Content examples |
|---|---|
| 18+ Interests | Examples (non-exhaustive) |
| Alcohol / tobacco / recreational drugs | Products such as alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drugs that are regulated or illegal to advertise to children. This also includes Prohibited Content and Restricted Content. In addition, products that are strongly related to alcohol, tobacco, or recreational drugs are prohibited (for example, offers for vineyard tours, e-cigarettes, or drug paraphernalia). |
| Gambling and casino games | Ads for online or real-world gambling, lotteries, or betting; entertainment hosted at casinos and lodging at casino hotels; and games strongly associated with casinos and betting (even if there isn't real money at stake) or guides on how to succeed at such games. |
| Age-sensitive media | Examples (non-exhaustive) |
| Teen & adult media | Ads for movies, TV shows, and console games that are sensitive to show to children. |
| Dangerous | Examples (non-exhaustive) |
| Dangerous content | Ads for products or services that are dangerous and inappropriate for children or that generally require adult supervision, such as paintball, airsoft, ax-throwing, spray paint, glass-etching substances or graffiti products, fireworks, weapons or weapon accessories, offers related to hunting, etc. |
| Financial | Examples (non-exhaustive) |
| Speculative financial products | Contracts for difference, rolling spot forex, financial spread betting, and synonymous products. |
| Health & beauty | Examples (non-exhaustive) |
| Beauty and cosmetics | Cosmetics and other products related to external personal care focused on body image. |
| Body modification and weight loss | Ads for body-modification products or services such as cosmetic procedures, weight loss, tanning, piercings, and tattoos. |
| Food and beverage | Products related to consumable food and drinks, regardless of nutritional content. |
| Health and wellness | Offers related to health care and medical issues of all kinds, including reproductive health, substance abuse or recovery, eating disorders, “miracle cures,” and health insurance. |
| Pharmaceuticals and supplements | Ads for pharmaceuticals or medications, vitamins, and nutritional supplements. |
| Privacy / safety / gimmicks | Examples (non-exhaustive) |
| Contests and sweepstakes | Contests or sweepstakes promotions, even if free to enter. |
| Mobile subscriptions | Offers that require the user to enter their mobile phone number to access content or subscribe to a service. |
| Social networks | Offers for social networks that allow users to connect with friends and others online. |
| Spying and arrest records | Offers for services that imply they will help spy on a partner, or find non-shared personal information about a third party. Also included are services that perform public records searches for arrest records. |
| Quizzes | Personality quizzes that require entering personal information like an email address or phone number to access results. |
| Video game skins / loot boxes | Ads that sell or promote the trading of video game skins or loot boxes. |
| Virtual worlds and chat rooms intended for adults | Offers for platforms or services intended for adults that primarily exist to allow users to connect and communicate with strangers. |
| Sensitive & controversial | Examples (non-exhaustive) |
| Astrology / occult / paranormal | Ads for content relating to astrology, the occult, or the paranormal. |
| Politics / religion / sensitive social issues | Ads related to politics, religion, or other sensitive or controversial social issues. |
| Sexual & romantic | Examples (non-exhaustive) |
| Adult and sexually suggestive content | Sexual and mature content that is intended for adult audiences. |
| Dating and relationships | Ads for dating services, matchmakers, relationship advice, or counseling. |
| Romantic content | Ads for fictional material, including games, books, or comics, that fall in the romance genre or include kissing elements. |
| Significant skin exposure | Ads featuring adults with bare skin exposure near the breasts, buttocks, or groin, such as swimwear or underwear modeling. |
| Violent, scary, or crude | Examples (non-exhaustive) |
| Fight sports / martial arts | Offers related to boxing, wrestling, martial arts, self-defense training, etc. |
| First-person shooters and battle games | Games where the player has a first-person perspective and shoots at other characters and games that involve controlling armies or fighters in battles or in combat. |
| Shocking or scary content | Violent, gruesome, graphic, obscene, profane, and other content that could shock or scare. This includes gory and non-gory realistic violence; references to death, disaster, or abuse; crude or vulgar humor; and scary gross, odd, or unsettling imagery (zombies, skeletons, masks, scary clowns, blood, etc.). |
Google may adjust the types of ad content and formats that are restricted under its Ad-serving Protections for Children policy as appropriate or required.
What does this mean for advertisers?
We expect all our advertisers to follow local legal requirements when using our products, including any regulations on advertising to users under age 18, as well as all Google Ads policies.
While you may notice an impact on ad campaign reach or performance, there is no action required on your part. We suggest that you work with your legal advisors to determine how to comply with child-related regulations.