This article explains how to comply with Google Play's Families policy when serving ads in apps that target children.
If your app targets children as an audience and you show ads in your app, you need to ensure your app complies with Google Play’s Families policy. AdMob offers the following tools for publishers to show ads that are compliant with Google Play’s Families policy.
Note that Google Play recently updated the Families Policy to clarify that if one of the target audiences for your app is children, your app must not transmit certain identifiers (including the advertising ID) for children or users of unknown age.
Apps designed specifically for children
If you select only child age groups in the Target Audience and Content section of the Google Play Console, AdMob will automatically begin serving Families policy-compliant ads for all ad requests coming from the app.
Ads that are deemed child- and family-friendly are a subset of the broader ads pool. If your app was not previously targeting only child age groups, you might notice fewer filled impressions after you update your target audience.
Apps for everyone, including children and families
The age treatment setting is a tool to help you manage your compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC), and the Australia Online Safety Act (AU OSA), or other applicable laws or regulations.
Learn more about how the GDPR and AADC affect publishers.
Please remember that Google's tools do not relieve you of your obligations under the law. Consult your legal counsel to determine the age treatment settings for your users based on your legal and regulatory requirements.
If you select child and older age groups in the Target Audience and Content section of the Google Play Console, including children and families, you’ll need to include code that calls the tagForAgeTreatment() method for ad requests served to children and also specify the maximum ad content rating.
For guidance about configuring age treatment for an ad request from an app and code samples, refer to the Google Mobile Ads SDK Developers site for Android and iOS.
Comply with Google Play’s Families Policies using AdMob Mediation
All Android apps classified as Families must use a Google Play Families self-certified ads SDK or mediation platform when serving ads to children or users of unknown age. To ensure your compliance with Play, AdMob will automatically block any ad sources that haven’t been self-certified by Google Play from serving ads in apps that are designed specifically for children, or in apps for everyone with child age treatment.
In most cases, you’ll be alerted in your AdMob account if the ad source you are using is not a self-certified ads source and you selected only child age groups in the Target Audience and Content section of the Google Play Console. Ad serving will continue from self-certified ad sources.
Some publishers may be interested in using AdMob Mediation for apps that include children as an audience.
If you want to use AdMob to mediate, you must configure your mediation group to only use Families self-certified ads SDKs.
Apps designed specifically for children
Apps that select only child age groups in the Target Audience and Content section of the Google Play Console, must only use Google Play Families self-certified ads SDKs to fill ad requests.
For your app to receive Families policy-compliant ads from third-party ad networks, set the age treatment to CHILD and set max_ad_content_rating to G for every ad request. Also, the third-party ad networks you select must serve Families policy-compliant ads. For guidance about configuring age treatment for an ad request from an app, refer to the Google Mobile Ads SDK Developers site for Android and iOS.
The Google Mobile Ads SDK will forward ad requests to third-party ad networks to serve Designed for Families policy-compliant ads. It is the developer's responsibility to ensure that the third-party ad networks serve ads that are compliant with the Families policies.
Apps for everyone, including children and families
Apps that select child and older age groups in the Target Audience and Content section of the Google Play Console, including children and families, must use a Google Play Families self-certified ads SDK to fill ad requests when serving ads to children or users of unknown age.
For ad requests that are served to children or users of unknown age, in order to receive Google Play’s Families policy-compliant ads from third-party ad networks, set the age treatment to CHILD and set max_ad_content_rating to G for every ad request.
The Google Mobile Ads SDK will forward ad requests to third-party ad networks to serve Families policy-compliant ads. It is the developer's responsibility to ensure that the third-party ad networks serve ads that are compliant with the Families policies.
Learn more about the Families program at Google Developers.
