Alphabet's Google said this week it would immediately improve enforcement of an age-sensitive ad policy after Reuters found advertisements for sex toys, liquor, and high-risk investments in its search engine that should have been blocked under its efforts to comply with UK regulations.
Britain started
enforcing regulations last September aimed at protecting children from being
tracked online. Google in response began modifying settings across its services
in Europe and elsewhere for users younger than 18 years. Among the measures it
had touted in August was "expanding safeguards to prevent age-sensitive ad
categories from being shown to teens."
Specifically, the
search giant began using automated tools to stop advertisements related to
categories such as alcohol, gambling, and prescription drugs from being shown
to people who are not logged in to a Google account or confirmed to be at least
18.
Tech companies face a growing challenge
with policing their sprawling services, and, according to posts on online
advertising forums and two advertisers, Google's enforcement has been spotty.
The advertisers, who sought anonymity out
of fear of retribution from the tech company, said they have been frustrated
about significant lost sales due to Google's search engine correctly blocking
their advertisements from signed-out users while erroneously allowing their
competitors' advertisements.
Advertisements were shown in the UK to
signed-out users last week for leveraged trading, cholesterol medication, adult
toy retailers and a major grocer promoting a vodka product, Reuters found.
"We have policies in place that limit
where we show certain age-sensitive ad categories," Google said. "The
advertisements in question were mislabeled and in this instance should have
been restricted from serving. We are taking immediate steps to address this
issue."
It declined to elaborate on the
adjustments.
Google advertising rivals such as Meta's
Facebook and Microsoft either ban many categories of age-sensitive
advertisements altogether or have put the onus on advertisers to target their
advertisements in ways that limit exposure to minors. Microsoft declined to
comment, and Facebook did not respond to requests for comment.
The UK Children's Code requires online
services to meet 15 design and privacy standards to protect children, such as
limiting collection of their location and other personal information. Google
said its filtering of age-sensitive advertisements is core to its compliance
with the code.
Advocacy group 5Rights Foundation, which
campaigned for the regulation and reviewed the findings by Reuters, said tech
companies should regularly publish internal research on how well they are
living up to the code and their own policies.
"We must be wary of ‘safety
washing,'" 5Rights said. "Tech companies need to back up their claims
with action, and demonstrate how they are complying with regulations,
particularly in the early stages of implementation."
Google did not respond to the comments. The
company declined to share detailed information with Reuters about how often it
had failed to block age-sensitive advertisements.
The UK Information Commissioner's Office
said in November it had reached out to Google, Apple, and other companies in
social media, streaming and gaming to review their conformance to the code. The
review is ongoing, the privacy regulator told Reuters. © Reuters