In July, Google announced that it would no longer acceptย advertisements on its site thatย promote โgraphic depictions ofย sexual acts,โ or that link to pornย sites.ย A few months earlier, inย March, Google also implementedย a policy against explicitย content on applications inย Google Play, its app store.
Neither policy affects theย ability to find pornographyย through Googleโs search functions,ย but they both mean thatย Google will no longer receiveย profit from the distribution ofย online pornography.ย For a company that makesย nearly $40 billion dollars a yearย in sales through AdsWords, theย decision to not accept ย advertisementsย that link to pornographyย is a big deal. Sites withย explicit content make up nearlyย 25 percent of the Internet, andย Google made money everyย time someone clicked throughย to those sites through one of itsย text-only advertisements. The search giant also made aย profit when a user downloadedย an app with pornographicย images.
In a statement released after the policy change, Morality in Media said: โWe are grateful that they are realizing that their profits from porn are not worth the devastation to children and families.โ
However, the nonprofit continues to ask Google to โimprove their policies and actions, especially on Google Search, Google Images, YouTube and Safe Search.โ
Google could do much more, but should be recognized also for working on software that could eliminate all images of child pornography on the Internet, and for launching a Child Protection Technology Fund.