On rare occasions, pornographic content may appear in search results for individual’s names even though they have no connection with pornography. There are a few reasons this may happen, including "stuffing" of irrelevant keywords on sites. This article is intended to support you through the process of requesting removal of such content from Google search results for your name.
Requirements
For us to consider the content for removal, it must meet both of these requirements:
- Your name, or any other form of identification that is associated with you, including nicknames and usernames, must be present on the page without any relevant reason for it being there.
- The URLs you share with us should be of content that mainly contains explicit material.
Request to remove irrelevant pornographic content from Google Search
You or your authorized representative can submit a request to block pornographic content from appearing in Google Search results for your name. Any authorized representative will need to explain how they have the authority to act on your behalf.
What happens after you submit the removal request
- You get an automated email confirmation. This confirms we received the request.
- We review your request. Each request is evaluated based on the requirements above.
- We gather more info, if needed. In some cases, we may ask you for more information. If the request doesn’t have enough information for us to evaluate, like missing URLs, we’ll share specific instructions and ask you to resubmit the request.
- You get a notification of any action taken.
- If the request doesn't meet the requirements for removal, we’ll also include a brief explanation. If your request is denied and later you have additional materials to support your case, you can re-submit your request.
- If the submitted URLs are found to be within the scope of our policy, they will be removed only from search results in which the query includes the complainant’s name, or other provided identifiers, such as aliases and social media handles.
We take public interest and newsworthiness into account when determining if content will be removed.
- In the vast majority of cases, these types of queries and the content that accompanies them have no public interest value.
- In very rare cases, we may not remove reported content based on a strong public interest.
Frequently asked questions
Which URLs do I submit for review?You must submit all the web or image URLs that you want us to review for removal from Google search results.
In the form, we ask for 2 types of URLs:
- URL of the webpage that shows the content
- URL of the Google search results page that contains the link to the web page you’re reporting
In the URL field of the form, add one URL per line. You can submit up to 1,000 URLs.
A web page can have content that’s relevant to multiple individuals. Screenshots of the content that’s related to you helps us identify the offending content for removal. We encourage you to edit the screenshots to obscure any sexually explicit portions of the screenshot.
You can take a screenshot on your computer or your mobile device. We suggest that you take the screenshot on the same device that you’ll use to submit the form, so you won’t need to transfer the image between devices.
Learn how to take a screenshot on your: