Adult Content Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to advertisers who are participating in the Adult Advertising Program. If you have not been accepted into that program, advertising for adult content is disallowed.

Microsoft adCenter classifies advertising as adult content if the target website features sexually explicit content, including:

• Pornography

• Dating sites with the clear intent for sexual encounters, where the website content features graphic images on the landing page, or the language is graphic or explicit in nature.

• Sites that promote porn stars and their personal brand

• Sites where sex toys are the prominent feature of the site

As an advertiser, you must apply to participate in the Yahoo! and Microsoft Adult Advertising Program. Your application may be considered separately for each country that you want to display ads in.

To participate in the Adult Advertising Program, you must agree to the Terms & Conditions and the Adult Agreement. Additional content restrictions may also apply. Adult ads might not be distributed through all of the advertising distribution options and may appear only in text search ads.

You are fully responsible for the keywords you use, your ad copy, and any landing page that you link to from an adult ad displayed on a Microsoft or Yahoo! web property. In addition, if you are participating in the Adult Advertising Program, you must comply with all applicable standard industry regulations, standards of practice, and legal requirements, including but not limited to those concerning age verification of models.

 

Disallowed adult content

The following content is disallowed for all advertisers, including participants in the Adult Advertising Program.

Advertising may not include keyword variations, ads, or websites that relate in any way to illegal, non-consensual, denigrating, obscene, or violent activity, including bestiality, brutality, torture, death, illegal drug use, cruelty, prostitution, pedophilia, rape, incest, extreme or shocking sex, child pornography, strippers/strip clubs, escorts, or content that relates to persons who are, or are suggested to be, under the legal age permitted in applicable jurisdictions.

 

Adult advertising guidelines

The following guidelines are provided for advisory purposes only. At its sole discretion and at any time, Microsoft reserves the right to define and amend what is considered adult content, amend the published adult policy, restrict the presence of adult content across the network, and disable the use of adult keywords.

• Keywords that are associated with adult advertising content must be solely “adult” keywords; that is, a search user would enter the keyword into the search box only to view links to sexually explicit content.
• You may not use keywords that are non-adult or ambiguous; that is, words that may be relevant to both an adult search results category and a non-adult search results category are not allowed.
• Ads for sites that contain sexually explicit content must contain language that clearly indicates that the site contains sexually explicit content. Sites that do not feature sexually explicit content on the landing page or as a dominant theme on the website, but that link to adult content, must employ a “bridge page” warning users that adult content will be found when the link is clicked.
• Space permitting, ads must indicate that the landing page is for ages 18+ or for adults only.
• Ads, keywords, landing pages, and website content must comply with all other Editorial Guidelines.

As a participant in the Adult Advertising Program, you are responsible for all content that is related to or accessible within your site, including, but not limited to, links; text; audio, visual, or image content; and content linked to from the site, even if it is provided by a third party. Advertisers must comply with all applicable standard industry regulations, standards of practice, and legal requirements, including but not limited to those concerning age verification of models.

• Web sites that contain adult images must include an age disclaimer on their site.
  • Examples of acceptable disclaimers include but are not limited to 18 U.S.C. section 2257 Compliance Notice and a 18 U.S.C. 2257 record Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement. This disclaimer must indicate that all models are 18 years or older and link to the Custodian of Records page.
• All models must have the appearance of being 18 or older.

Although Microsoft has no obligation to do so, we may request access to sites that are associated with adult ads. You agree to give Microsoft unrestricted and unconditional access to all sites that are associated with adult ads at no charge, as requested, so that the Microsoft can investigate compliance of such sites with this policy, as well as other editorial guidelines.