In order to protect minors, Google launched the Safe Search feature a few years ago , which prevented children from accessing content classified as "harmful " in the vast ocean of the Internet. But in 2021, a Google update made this feature automatically activated on all Google profiles whose age had not been verified.
As a result, advertising and traffic to stores selling sexual wellness products has been partially blocked , as Google believes that this type of content is not suitable for minors.
This update has been a real headache for brands that offer this type of product. This is the case of Lovehoney , an online sex toy store that has lost almost a million potential customers due to this change in Google's code. This is explained by Johanna Rief, the brand's director of Sexual Empowerment, who regrets that, despite the company investing the same amount in digital advertising, it only gets "a fraction of the traffic."
The company has reported the problem to the tech giant, but has not received a response. “Our experience has shown that the big tech companies simply do not want to talk to us, or to anyone in our industry,” Johanna Rief told Horizont .
In addition, Lovehoney's Sexual Empowerment Director criticises saudi arabia number data Google for considering sex toy companies to be "harmful" in their content. In her opinion, it is necessary for children to start having knowledge about sexual education early, so Google should not try to protect them from something that benefits them.
This is not the first time that sex toy companies have faced such blockages: beyond Google, social networks have also censored content related to this type of business.
" Facebook and Instagram generally prohibit advertising for our industry. We are not allowed to promote our products. In our industry, we are really limited when it comes to marketing ," Johanna Rief explains to the German newspaper.
The expert also noted that products aimed at women are often banned to a greater extent than those aimed at men. However, Nora Kulling, vice president of marketing at the men's health platform GoSpring , also confirms that many digital platforms are blocked.
She explains that they have to “frequently deal” with blocking advertising campaigns on virtually all social networks, from Facebook to YouTube . They complain that medical advice content, for example, which has to do with sexual health, cannot be reproduced on the latter platform because it is a “ taboo subject for conservative American corporations.”