Google Is More Lenient with the 'Family-Safe' Content in Ads

In the good old days, Google made a big breakthrough with very simple yet effective text-only ads. These ads showing up for relevant searches made Google into the tech giant it is today. Over time, though, the company has started to diversify its offering while, thankfully, maintaining its clean approach to advertising. One small but important addition is the images which sometimes accompany the ads. Product ads all feature an image and, as Search Engine Land found out, they can some time get a little racy.

It turns out that Google is a bit less conservative than Apple for example and has a more flexible definition on what content is considered not suited for the younger users. This means that images of a more provocative nature are allowed in ads even when the Safe Search option is enabled. Google does review all the images advertisers provide and places them in three categories depending on their content. Even so, only images which are found to have "adult content" are labeled as non-family friendly.

"AdWords specialists review all of the ads that appear on Google and the Google Network. Ads are categorized as 'Family Safe,' 'Non-Family Safe,' or 'Adult,' depending on the content of the ad and website. Google does not permit ads that are classified as 'Non-Family Safe' or 'Adult' to appear for users who have activated their SafeSearch filter," a Google help page, designed to help users avoid certain types of ads unsuited for all audiences, reads.

By default, the SafeSearch filter is activated for all Google Search users in all sections. If the filter is disabled, though, adult ads are fair game and this likely includes the images in the ads as well. Still, there are a couple of unknowns. For one, Google doesn't clearly state what classifies as "adult content" and what doesn't. Also, the SafeSearch filter has three levels, one being completely disabled, and it's not clear how the settings affect the ads.