I am having a poor month with Adsense. At least I've had pages restored. To those who are not aware, do not use any words that might be suggestive of sex. The word "sex" itself will get your page banned. Anything even remotely related to sex (which I thought was a taboo we had conquered in he 60s) might get your pages knocked.
Words like pictorial, provocative, sensual, erotic, love, kissing, legs, skimpy, revealing, etc., you get my drift, may get your pages nicked. It's insane, it's puritanical even beyond standards of puritans. I've seen their videos on the topic of "adult content," with the presenter some smug 20s-something doofus, who probably hasn't even had sex more than twice. It's ridiculous in a world, especially in Europe and Latin America, where sensuality and sexuality is acceptable and flaunted openly. In the US, sexuality has been employed by Hollywood and the ad industry for decades. There used to be three things which would sell: sex, pets, babies. Well, Google has cut us down to cute puppies and chubby, cherubic little people, but make sure nothing naughty is showing on those babies... or dogs.
What irritates me about this is the abject hypocrisy of Google. They promote video games featuring female "warriors" with body parts hanging out of everywhere. I see them on my sites. Those ads are 10X more provocative than my content. Google promotes Hollywood, replete with violence and yes, sex, a lot of it. They also promote various TV programs, like "Two and a Half Men," or "Two Broke Girls" on which the sexual innuendos are nearly explicit.
The kicker is Google's overriding statement about adult content, which is, "if you would feel uncomfortable viewing content with your 8-year-old daughter, then it probably violates our policies." That is so subjective, besides being just plain stupid. I don't have an 8-year-old daughter, but, if I did, I certainly wouldn't want her looking over my shoulder when I'm online. Eight-year-olds have no concept of what would be considered acceptable by a 30, 40, 50, or even like me, a 65-year old. Besides, they probably wouldn't be interested.
Google is also anti-gambling, but, now that the US government has lifted their stupid ban on internet gambling - overriding the objections from the NFL and NBA because governments need new revenue all the time - that policy will likely change. It's not that Google was ever morally opposed to lotteries or sports betting, they were just being good lap dogs of the government.
Google is a spineless company run by an idocracy made up of millennial brats. Nothing against millennials, as I have many friends of that age, but the ones who rise to positions of authority seem to be rather... shall I say, vacuous when it comes to societal standards.
Sorry to ramble on, but as independent publishers, we deserve better than having some Orwellian Ministry of truth overseeing our businesses. I've said it since day 1, Google has far too much power, and they used small publishers to get it. Without the content of millions of sites, blogs, videos, there would be no Google. I'm in favor of competition to them, but everybody is afraid to step up.
I'm still thinking of ways to escape this nightmare. On the bright side, I've just moved from NY to Tennessee. Big change for the positive. With a more open mind and maybe, some day, some free time, I'll find a way out, and I promise to take those of you at WebmasterWorld who want to go, along.
All the best,
Fearless
