Google adds option to limit alcohol or gambling advertisements

Google has announced today that it’s rolling out the ability for users to limit how many alcohol and gambling ads they’re shown (via Search Engine Land). This should be a welcome feature for users who may be sensitive to seeing alcohol use or gambling, or are looking to avoid those topics.

While Google has previously allowed users to hide specific ads, this change affects ads category-wide. It’s also already had restrictions on the categories based on age and national laws — the change just lets users apply those limits to themselves.

The settings for the two categories are separate, so if you’re fine with gambling ads but not alcohol ads, or vice versa, you can allow one but not the other. It’s worth noting that the feature only promises to reduce the number of alcohol and gambling ads you’ll see, not eliminate them completely.

Image: Google

Google says that “[t]his feature will roll out in Ad Settings gradually, beginning with YouTube Ads in the US, and we aim to introduce this for Google Ads and YouTube globally in early 2021.” If you want to turn off either category, you can go to your Ad Settings page. If the change has rolled out to your account, the buttons will be located at the bottom of the page.