Shopping ads protections for children and teens

Note: This policy only applies to Shopping ads. It does not apply to free listings.

It’s important that our Shopping ads experience across Google products is useful, informative, and above all, safe for all our users. That’s why we work to ensure that the Shopping Ads shown on Google’s products protects children and teens, too.

Our child and teen Shopping policies, along with other Shopping policies (including but not limited to those for alcohol, gambling, and high fat, sugar, and salt food and beverages), work together to provide strong protections that include:

Disabling Shopping ads personalization
Restricting sensitive Shopping listing content and categories

Our protections support compliance with child-directed regulations, such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the UK Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC). We require all our merchants to follow local legal requirements when using our products, including any regulations on advertising to minors.

Shopping ads serving protections for children

The Shopping ads serving protections for children policy applies on YouTube, Google Display Ads, and Display & Video 360 campaigns, and additional products will be added over time. These protections include disabling ads personalization and restricting sensitive ad content and categories for users under the digital age of consent, such as:

Teen and adult media
Beauty and cosmetics
Sensitive and controversial
Romantic content
Violent, scary, or crude content

Restricted categories and prohibited content for children

The following Shopping ads and listings categories and content are restricted globally for children, even if these categories are generally permissible on other Google products.

Category		Examples (non-exhaustive)
18+ Interests	Alcohol Tobacco Recreational drugs	Products such as alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drugs that are regulated or illegal to advertise to children. This also includes Prohibited Content and Restricted Content. In addition, products that are strongly related to alcohol, tobacco, or recreational drugs are prohibited (for example, offers for vineyard tours, e-cigarettes, or drug paraphernalia).
Age-sensitive media	Teen and adult media	Shopping Ads for movies, TV shows, and console games that are sensitive to show to children.
Dangerous products or services	Dangerous content	Shopping Ads for products that are dangerous and inappropriate for children or that generally require adult supervision, such as paintball, airsoft, ax-throwing, spray paint, glass-etching substances or graffiti products, fireworks, weapons or weapon accessories, offers related to hunting, etc.
Health and beauty	Beauty and cosmetics	Cosmetics and other products related to external personal care focused on body image.
	Body modification and weight loss	Shopping Ads for body-modification products such as cosmetic procedures, weight loss, and piercings.
	Food and beverage	Products related to consumable food and drinks, regardless of nutritional content.
	Health and wellness	Shopping Ads related to health care and medical issues of all kinds, including reproductive health, substance abuse or recovery, eating disorders, and “miracle cures.”
	Pharmaceuticals and supplements	Shopping Ads for pharmaceuticals or medications, vitamins, and nutritional supplements.
Privacy, safety, and gimmicks	Social networks	Offers for social networks that allow users to connect with friends and others online.
	Video game skins Loot boxes	Shopping Ads that sell or promote the trading of video game skins or loot boxes.
	Virtual worlds and chat rooms intended for adults	Offers for platforms intended for adults that primarily exist to allow users to connect and communicate with strangers.
Sensitive or controversial	Astrology Occult Paranormal	Shopping Ads for content relating to astrology, the occult, or the paranormal.
Sensitive or controversial	Politics Religion Sensitive social issues	Shopping Ads related to politics, religion, or other sensitive or controversial social issues.
Sexual and romantic	Adult and sexually suggestive content	Sexual and mature content that is intended for adult audiences.
	Romantic content	Shopping Ads for fictional material, including games, books, or comics, that fall in the romance genre or include kissing elements.
	Significant skin exposure	Shopping Ads featuring adults with bare skin exposure near the breasts, buttocks, or groin, such as swimwear or underwear modeling.
Violent, scary, or crude	Fight sports Martial arts	Offers related to boxing, wrestling, martial arts, self-defense training, etc.
	First-person shooters Battle games	Games where the player has a first-person perspective and shoots at other characters and games that involve controlling armies or fighters in battles or in combat.
	Shocking or scary content	Violent, gruesome, graphic, obscene, profane, and other content that could shock or scare. This includes: Gory and non-gory realistic violence References to death, disaster, or abuse Crude or vulgar humor Scary gross, odd, or unsettling imagery like zombies, skeletons, masks, scary clowns, or blood

Google may update the types of Shopping content and formats restricted under its Shopping listing serving protections for children policy as deemed appropriate or necessary.

Shopping ads serving protections for teens

The ad-serving protections for teens policy applies on YouTube, Google Display Ads, and Display & Video 360 campaigns, and additional products will be added over time. These protections include disabling ads personalization and restricting sensitive ad content and categories for users above the digital age of consent and under 18 years old, such as:

Adult media
Body modification and weight loss
Shocking content
Virtual worlds and chat rooms intended for adults

Restricted categories and prohibited content

The following Shopping ads and listings categories are restricted globally on Google Accounts, even if these categories are generally permissible on other Google products.

Category	Restricted ad content (non-exhaustive)
Adult and sexually suggestive content	Sexual and mature content that is intended for adult audiences
Adult media	Shopping Ads for movies, TV shows, and console games that are sensitive to show to users under age 18
Alcohol Tobacco Recreational drugs	Products such as alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drugs that are regulated or illegal to advertise to children. This also includes Prohibited Content and Restricted Content. Products that are strongly related to alcohol, tobacco, or recreational drugs are prohibited. Examples (non-exhaustive): Offers for vineyard tours, e-cigarettes, or drug paraphernalia
Body modification and weight loss	Shopping Ads for body-modification products such as weight loss, tanning, and piercings.
Dangerous content	Shopping Ads for products that are dangerous and inappropriate for users under 18 or that generally require adult supervision. Examples (non-exhaustive): spray paint, glass-etching substances or graffiti products, fireworks, weapons or weapon accessories, or offers related to hunting
Pharmaceuticals and supplements	Shopping Ads for pharmaceuticals or medications, vitamins, and nutritional supplements
Shocking content	Violent, gruesome, graphic, obscene, profane, and other content that could shock or scare
Virtual worlds and chat rooms intended for adults	Shopping Ads for platforms or services intended for adults that primarily exist to allow users to connect and communicate with strangers

Google may update the types of Shopping content and formats restricted under its Shopping ads and listings serving protections for teens policy as deemed appropriate or necessary.

Options to fix

Here's what you can do if your product is disapproved or if your Merchant Center account is impacted:

Product disapproval

Products that don't comply with our policies may be disapproved and won't be eligible to serve.

Read our Shopping ads policies to learn what we don't allow.
Update your website. If your ad or listing directs to violating content, update your website to meet all policy requirements.
- Remove the violating products. You must remove non-compliant offers from your product data feed. You’ll receive an email with details about the violations.
- Update your product data in Merchant Center. Manually update your product data or wait for your automated upload schedule to run before requesting any reviews.
Request a review or appeal. After fixing the issue or if you believe the disapproval is incorrect, you can request a review or appeal the decision.
- Individual product review (if you fixed the issue)
  - If you edit your product data via your chosen upload method (such as a file) or directly in Merchant Center, the affected products will be automatically re-reviewed.
  - If you remove the violating products from your feed, no further action or review request is necessary.
- Standard appeal (if you disagree with the issue)
  - For certain issues, you can dispute the violation. You may need to complete additional steps, such as providing an appeal reason and/or uploading required documentation.
  - If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will be removed from Merchant Center.
- Bulk appeal (available in certain cases)
  - For specific policy issues where you believe a large number of offers require review, you may be able to submit a single bulk appeal.
  - ⚠️ Warning: Before submitting a bulk appeal, you must review your offers and remove any policy-violating items from your feed. Submitting a bulk appeal for a large set of offers risks immediate failure if violations are found. This may limit your ability to submit subsequent appeals for those products.
  - You must remove any offers that are violating our policies from your feed before attempting to appeal in bulk.
  - How to appeal in bulk: The bulk appeal option may not be available in all instances or when using third-party platforms.
    - Option 1 - Under all products
      - Go to Merchant Center > Products > Needs attention.
        
        Navigate to the specific issue.
        
        Select “View fix”
        
        Select the option to disagree with the issue for all products.
        
        Review any informational prompts that appear.
        
        Select “Request review” to submit the appeal.
      - Option 2 - Product details page
        
        From the product details page, selecting “Review and fix” will display the appeal options: “I disagree with the issue” and/or “I disagree with the issue for all products”.
      - Third-party platforms
        
        If you use a third-party platform to list your products, consult that platform for available review options.
        
        If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will disappear from Merchant Center.

Account disapproval

For most violations, we'll send you a warning email detailing the policy violation and give you 7 or 28 calendar days to fix your issue. However, we may not issue a warning for egregious policy violations.

Read our Shopping ads policies to learn what we don't allow.
Update your website. If your ad or listing directs to violating content, update your website to meet all policy requirements.
- Remove the violating products. You must remove non-compliant offers from your product data feed. You’ll receive an email with details about the violations.
- Update your product data in Merchant Center. Manually update your product data or wait for your automated upload schedule to run before requesting any reviews.
Request a review or appeal. After fixing the issue or if you believe the disapproval is incorrect, you can request a review or appeal the decision.
- Individual product review (if you fixed the issue)
  - If you edit your product data via your chosen upload method (such as a file) or directly in Merchant Center, the affected products will be automatically re-reviewed.
  - If you remove the violating products from your feed, no further action or review request is necessary.
- Standard appeal (if you disagree with the issue)
  - For certain issues, you can dispute the violation. You may need to complete additional steps, such as providing an appeal reason and/or uploading required documentation.
  - If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will be removed from Merchant Center.
- Bulk appeal (available in certain cases)
  - For specific policy issues where you believe a large number of offers require review, you may be able to submit a single bulk appeal.
  - ⚠️ Warning: Before submitting a bulk appeal, you must review your offers and remove any policy-violating items from your feed. Submitting a bulk appeal for a large set of offers risks immediate failure if violations are found. This may limit your ability to submit subsequent appeals for those products.
  - You must remove any offers that are violating our policies from your feed before attempting to appeal in bulk.
  - How to appeal in bulk: The bulk appeal option may not be available in all instances or when using third-party platforms.
    - Option 1 - Under all products
      - Go to Merchant Center > Products > Needs attention.
        
        Navigate to the specific issue.
        
        Select “View fix”
        
        Select the option to disagree with the issue for all products.
        
        Review any informational prompts that appear.
        
        Select “Request review” to submit the appeal.
    - Option 2 - Product details page
      - From the product details page, selecting “Review and fix” will display the appeal options: “I disagree with the issue” and/or “I disagree with the issue for all products”.
  - Third-party platforms
    - If you use a third-party platform to list your products, consult that platform for available review options.
    - If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will disappear from Merchant Center.

Note: Account reviews typically take 7 business days, but may take longer for complex reviews. If you remove violating products, the warning will be removed. If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will disappear from Merchant Center. In the case of account suspension, we will approve the account and allow products to be displayed again.

Account issue that limits product visibility

Your account has an issue and is operating with reserved functionality, therefore your products have limited visibility. Check your email for a notice with details about the issue and steps to resolve it. Common issues include policy violations or missing account information.

Read our Shopping ads and listings policies to learn what we don't allow.
Update your website. If your ad or listing directs to violating content, update your website to meet all policy requirements.
- Remove the violating products. You must remove non-compliant offers from your product data feed. You’ll receive an email with details about the violations.
- Update your product data in Merchant Center. Manually update your product data or wait for your automated upload schedule to run before requesting any reviews.
Request a review or appeal. After fixing the issue or if you believe the disapproval is incorrect, you can request a review or appeal the decision.
- Individual product review (if you fixed the issue)
  - If you edit your product data via your chosen upload method (such as a file) or directly in Merchant Center, the affected products will be automatically re-reviewed.
  - If you remove the violating products from your feed, no further action or review request is necessary.
- Standard appeal (if you disagree with the issue)
  - For certain issues, you can dispute the violation. You may need to complete additional steps, such as providing an appeal reason and/or uploading required documentation.
  - If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will be removed from Merchant Center.
- Bulk appeal (available in certain cases)
  - For specific policy issues where you believe a large number of offers require review, you may be able to submit a single bulk appeal.
  - ⚠️ Warning: Before submitting a bulk appeal, you must review your offers and remove any policy-violating items from your feed. Submitting a bulk appeal for a large set of offers risks immediate failure if violations are found. This may limit your ability to submit subsequent appeals for those products.
  - You must remove any offers that are violating our policies from your feed before attempting to appeal in bulk.
  - How to appeal in bulk: The bulk appeal option may not be available in all instances or when using third-party platforms.
    - Option 1 - Under all products
      - Go to Merchant Center > Products > Needs attention.
        
        Navigate to the specific issue.
        
        Select “View fix”
        
        Select the option to disagree with the issue for all products.
        
        Review any informational prompts that appear.
        
        Select “Request review” to submit the appeal.
    - Option 2 - Product details page
      - From the product details page, selecting “Review and fix” will display the appeal options: “I disagree with the issue” and/or “I disagree with the issue for all products”.
  - Third-party platforms
    - If you use a third-party platform to list your products, consult that platform for available review options.
    - If a review or appeal is successful, the issue will disappear from Merchant Center.

To ensure a safe and positive experience for customers, Google requires that retailers comply with all applicable laws and regulations in addition to our policies. It's important that you familiarize yourself with and keep up to date on these requirements for the place where your business operates, as well as any other places your ads are shown. When we find content that violates these requirements, we may block it from appearing. In cases of repeated or egregious violations, we may ban you from advertising content with us.

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