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+1 yo Game using UnityAds deleted by google for not matching Age Rating. But...

Discussion in 'Unity Ads & User Acquisition' started by MPM, Mar 16, 2019.

  1. MPM

    MPM

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2014
    Posts:
    28
    Hi,
    today i received and email from Google regarding a EU/3+ US/E age rated Android game, published for more than a year.

    "Issue: Violation of Inappropriate Ads policy
    The ads shown within your app must be appropriate for the intended audience of your app, even if the content by itself is otherwise compliant with our policies. For example, ads that show mature content or services cannot be served in apps that have a content rating for younger audiences.
    "

    So far, that sounds fair.

    I learnt at this occasion that Unity Ads offers age filtering.
    Problem is, i can't match EU/3+ age with settings. And anyway, it would probably restrict the ads too much.
    So, the only viable solution, other than removing ads, would be to set a IARC (centralized age questionnaire in Google Play) to EU/13 US/T and filter 13+ ads.
    But how am i supposed to answer questions about not the content of my game, but the content of ads that Unity provide?

    I'm surprised to not having found the question by searching this forum: am i that unlucky that Google just decided to be overzealous with me and not the zillions of 3+ games that i downloaded and shows the exact same ads as my game?
     
    wagnerps likes this.
  2. StartStart

    StartStart

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2013
    Posts:
    150
    GoogleAdsMob has setting for ads type to show, Unity Ads I don't seen any ads type setting.

    Hope you find someone to answer this question asap. Because I use Unity Ads for my game too.
     
  3. MPM

    MPM

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2014
    Posts:
    28
    Unity Ads have both by age and by type settings in the web Dashboard.

    My problem is how to set IARC to match ads, not to set ads to match my IARC (which is impossible).
     
  4. mikaisomaa

    mikaisomaa

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Sep 14, 2015
    Posts:
    365
    Can you ask Google support which ads were in violation of their policy?

    And can you confirm you've set the age filtering settings to the lowest age rating?

    Has your game been uploaded in the "designed for families" category? This category is more strict and you might also need to block some ad genres such as gambling.
     
  5. MPM

    MPM

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2014
    Posts:
    28
    Thank you for your answer.

    We can write to a human being at Google? o_O

    As i said in my first message, the Unity ads filtering wasn't active, so we won't need to find why an ad didn't match the age rating.
    I do not want to limit my ads to +3 (or +4) - even if i don't know how many ads Unity is able to serve in a given age slot.
    I want to set my game age rating to something appropriate to older appropriate age (my ads filter is now set to 13+), but that means answering questions about those ads inside Google Play Store console (IARC)
    Translating ads we don't see in an IARC set of answers is my problem.

    In the meantime, i blindly declared fantasy murders in my colorful, peaceful game. I cross fingers to end at a "T" ESRB rating, since my rating is now "pending" for two days.
    Edit: it was pending by my fault. I reach "T", but 16, not 12 :/
    Also, Google state that we shouldn't lie in the declaration, not specifying if you can do it in order to "over evaluate" the age. (which shouldn't cause any legal problem to Google)
    Edit 2: After try&error, i got a T 12+ ratings in most countries.
    Edit 3: Game is now back on the store.
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2019