Lots of local blogs and forums tell horror stories about how they were scolded or -worse- banned from AdSense. Every story starts telling how they were innocent, how they were framed and usually end blaming George Bush.
Well, I don’t think the POTUS can be blamed if people don’t read the EULAs or simply don’t care about them.
Problem is: We only respect the laws we find reasonable, here. It’s a cultural thing, even law enforcement people will NOT enforce a nonsense law.
Example: Selling booze to minors. It’s illegal.
No one will sell a beer if a 12 years-old sits on a bar and asks for a cold one, but if he arrives with the bottles (cheaper than a deposit) and a bag, it’s clear he’s making a purchase for an adult, and there’ll be no problem. But it’s still selling alcohol to minors, and illegal.
When Google says you can’t click on your own ads and can’t post them on adult sites or link to illegal stuff, the average kid thinks: “Ah, I’m a small operation, they’ll not find me” or “come on, it’s only a few clicks. Nobody will notice”.
Also Google is very severe with anyone posting AdSense ads on adult sites. Picture exchange forums discovered the hard way how easy is to be spotted by the ever-vigilant Watchdog.
But it gets worse. Sometimes a user is warned and can’t understand why. Well, again it’s cultural. We’re very liberal regarding sexuality. Not that we walk naked, topless women are almost impossible to spot on the most famous beaches, but nudity, specially on TV, is not a big deal. No wardrobe malfunction, here. They take if off on purpose
So, what Google thinks it’s inappropriate, may be something totally lame, by local standards. Go figure…
