Adult content

Humor, imagery, text, video, or audio that is not appropriate for non-adults and includes: Illegal, non-consensual, denigrating, obscene, or violent activity, including bestiality, brutality, torture, death, illegal drug use, cruelty, prostitution, pedophilia, rape, incest, sex, child pornography, stripper/strip clubs, escorts, or content that relates to persons who are, or are suggested to be, under the legal age permitted in applicable jurisdictions are strictly prohibited.

 SEARCH

Only pre-approved advertisers may participate in the Adult Advertising Program. If you are an approved advertiser, please follow these policies to ensure your ads are approved quickly.

The Adult Advertising Program is only available in the following markets: Albania, Australia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Montenegro, New Zealand, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States and Taiwan.

Definition

Microsoft classifies advertising as adult content if the ad copy or the target website feature sexually explicit content, including, but not limited to:

• 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.

Disallowed adult content

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 portrayed to be, under the legal age permitted in applicable jurisdictions. Ads should not contain content that is offensive or contrary to public morals in any of the markets that you target, as applicable.

Adult advertising participation

Advertisers must apply to participate in the Adult Advertising Program and ensure compliance with applicable regulations and Microsoft policies. Adult ads may not be distributed through all of the advertising distribution options and may appear only in text search ads.

If you would like to apply, please complete, and submit the Adult advertising program participation form. Your application may be considered separately for each country in which you want to display ads.

As a participant in the program:

• You must utilize age targeting for 18+.
• 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, as well as content linked to from the site even if it is provided by a third party.
• You must comply with all applicable industry regulations, standards of practice and legal requirements, including, but not limited to, those concerning age verification of models featured on the site.
• You agree to give Microsoft immediate, unrestricted, and unconditional access to all sites that are associated with adult ads, at no charge, in cases where we need to investigate compliance of such sites with our Microsoft Advertising policies.
• For more information and the approved adult keyword list, please contact support or reach out to your account manager.

Adult keywords and advertising

• Keywords that are approved for adult advertising content must be solely and explicitly for adult content – for example, Bing users searching on approved adult keywords are only served sexually explicit content, while non-adult-specific keywords do not serve adult content. Examples of approved adult keywords include: Free Porn, XXX Video, Live Sex Chat Cams, Phone Sex Lines, Sex Toys, Blow up Dolls or Rabbit Vibrator.
• Keywords that are not explicitly related to adult content – that is, keywords that are relevant to both an adult search results category and a non-adult search results category – are not allowed. Examples of keywords that are not explicitly related to adult content include: Breast Enhancement, Condoms, Lubricants, Lingerie, Sex Education or Single Dating.
• You may only bid on adult keywords from our approved adult keyword list for your adult campaign, and only using the “Exact” match type. Bidding on phrase or broad match types will prevent your ads from delivering.

Adult advertising policies

The following policies 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.

• Ads for sites that contain sexually explicit content must contain language that clearly indicates that the site contains sexually explicit content. Space permitting, ads must indicate that the landing page is for ages 18+ or for adults only.
• 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.

Landing pages must point to a bridge page when linking to adult content:

Landing pages may not link directly to adult content without the use of a bridge page:

• Sites that feature adult images must include an age disclaimer on their site and all models must have the appearance of being 18 years or older.
  • Examples of acceptable age disclaimers include, but are not limited to, 18 U.S.C. section 2257 Compliance Notice and 18 U.S.C. 2257 record Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement for the U.S. This disclaimer must indicate that all models are 18 years or older and link to the Custodian of Records page.
• Ads, keywords, landing pages and website content must comply with all other Microsoft Advertising policies.