Pornography lost its access to the most powerful advertising engine on the internet last week, as Google informed their advertisers of a new policy banning pornographic ads on their website.
“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,” Google wrote in a letter addressed to the users of AdWords.
The letter reiterated policy changes the company made in March, which prohibit sexually explicit content in the ads that are placed on their website, promising to “disapprove all ads and sites that are identified as being in violation of [their] revised policy.”
The anti-pornography organization Morality in Media (MIM) hailed Google’s announcement as a “huge victory.”
Google has been on MIM’s “Dirty Dozen” list, the “12 leading contributors to sexual exploitation,” for the last two years.
“In May, we had a productive meeting with Google about how they can help protect individuals, families and children from exploitation,” MIM’s executive director, Dawn Hawkins, wrote in a statement. “Today, we are seeing the fruits of that meeting.”
Morality in Media is sponsoring a petition on its website, PornHarms.com, in order for people to express their support and gratitude to Google for their policy changes and to encourage Google to block pornographic content from its websites such as YouTube, Google Search, and Google Images.
Click “like” if you say NO to porn!
The petition also notes that Google has decided to ban sexually explicit apps from Google Play, its app store.
Pornography accounts for as much as 30 percent of all internet traffic, according to an estimate from the technology magazine ExtremeTech.