• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 3, 2014

Google has begun to enforce its ban on pornography, preventing some ads from appearing in its online search results, as it puts together a new policy center the company hopes will clarify its terms of service.

The policy went into effect in June, with Google announcing the policy in March, but CNBC reports the Mountain View, Calif.  company now bans porn businesses from using its ad network.

As part of its AdWords policies, Google will not allow underage-themed or non-consensual or illegal sexual content, but still allows some types of pornographic ads to serve on its network. Google calls it pornography with limitations and describes it as when appearing in certain countries, and when advertisers meet the requirements and disclose all models participating in the ad are 18 years of age or older. These advertisements are given "adult status restricting who can see" them.

There are more AdWords policy changes on the way, but not necessarily related solely to pornography. Google plans to launch a new AdWords Policy Center around September that will make it easier to identify dos and don'ts. The information will cover four areas: prohibited content, prohibited practices, restricted content, and editorial and technical quality standards.

Violating any one of these policies means that Google would disapprove an advertisement. A disapproved ad won't run until the policy violation is fixed and the ad is approved. Google also reserves the right to suspend Web sites that violate this policy. It initially means the Web site can no longer advertise with AdWords until the problem is fixed, but as Google begins selling domain names, the chance of expanding on related policies increases.

On the prohibited content list, marketers will find counterfeit goods, dangerous products and services, those that enable dishonest behavior, and offensive or inappropriate. Others also are listed, but Google plans to update policies, or ToS, in the coming months.

"Hugging Couple" photo from Shutterstock.