Here, we highlight some common challenges that publishers encounter with user-generated content, along with some recommendations for the best strategies to manage user-generated content in each situation.
It’s up to you to choose the solutions that work best for your site or app.
Comments
Comments, especially anonymous comments, are often a source of automated spam. This spam may contain potentially offensive text and links to sites of dubious quality. It often violates applicable programme policies if allowed to appear on your site or app.
Further, authentic users who see spam may conclude a site or app has been abandoned or is ill-maintained and will abandon using it.
Lastly, comments sometimes allow users to write things they wouldn’t say in person. Setting a standard through a content policy and filtering for common offensive terms can help.
Recommended solutions: Publish a content policy, Captcha, Report a violation, Trusted users, User-moderators, Disable ad serving until review, Content filtering, Content reviewers.
Forums
Forums are often an excellent means of fostering community. People share text, images and videos with each other and grow to know and like each other. Unfortunately, sometimes automated bots invade forums and spam users, or allow users to engage in offensive conduct.
Recommended solutions: Publish a content policy, Captcha, Report a violation, Trusted users, User-moderators, Disable ad serving until review, Content filtering, Content reviewers.
Photos, music and file sharing
Sharing photos, music or other files can be a great way to build a community around shared interests or creativity. However, these same services can be abused to violate copyright, push virus-laden or unwanted software, or otherwise violate our programme policies. Ensure that any content shared via a site or app complies with our programme policies if ads are served alongside such content.
Recommended solutions: Publish a content policy, Captcha, Report a violation, Trusted users, User-moderators, Disable ad serving until review, Content filtering, Content reviewers.
Dating
Online dating sites and apps can often include revealing images that are not family-safe. Though these images may be permitted by the site or app, non-family-safe images are prohibited under our programme policies. Therefore, please do not monetise, for example, photos that are non-family-safe or dating profiles that contain non-family-safe content.
Lastly, if a site or app is primarily-oriented toward adult dating, in other words "sex dating", it is likely not suitable for AdSense or AdMob.
Recommended solutions: Publish a content policy, Report a violation, Assess risk, Disable ad serving until review, Content filtering, Content reviewers.
