Google is rebranding its age rating ads policy as age verification increases
Google is updating its advertising policy to clarify how it limits certain ads while estimating a user’s age, giving advertisers more transparency as it expands age verification technology globally.
What’s going on. Google has renamed its Automatic Ad Treatment policy to “Restricted categories while Google estimates the user’s age.” The change better indicates that the restrictions are temporary and only apply while Google’s systems determine the user’s age.
What’s changing:
- The policy has a new name to clearly define its purpose.
- Google has updated the policy language to emphasize that the restrictions are temporary protections during the age verification process.
- Law enforcement remains unchanged.
What’s different: Google also narrowed down the list of restricted ad categories during the age rating process.
Previously, Google limited ads to:
- Adult content and pornography
- Alcohol
- Gambling
- Shocking content
The revised policy now only limits:
- Adult content and pornography
- Alcohol
- Gambling
Why do we care. The update does not introduce new advertising restrictions, but provides more clarity on when and why certain ads may not be served. Affected vertical marketers may better understand that these restrictions are related to Google’s age rating process rather than permanent policy changes.
An important point. Nothing changes for advertisers in practice, but Google’s updated policy makes it clear that restrictions on adult, alcohol and gambling ads are temporary protections while the user’s age is measured.
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