Common challenges with user-generated content and how to overcome them

Here, we highlight some common challenges that publishers encounter with user-generated content, along with some recommendations for the best strategies to manage user-generated content in each situation.

It’s up to you to choose the solutions that work best for your site or app.

Comments

Comments, especially anonymous comments, are often a source of automated spam. This spam may contain potentially offensive text and links to sites of dubious quality. It often violates applicable programme policies if allowed to appear on your site or app.

Further, authentic users who see spam may conclude a site or app has been abandoned or is ill-maintained and will abandon using it.

Lastly, comments sometimes allow users to write things they wouldn’t say in person. Setting a standard through a content policy and filtering for common offensive terms can help.

Recommended solutions: Publish a content policy, Captcha, Report a violation, Trusted users, User-moderators, Disable ad serving until review, Content filtering, Content reviewers.

Forums

Forums are often an excellent means of fostering community. People share text, images and videos with each other and grow to know and like each other. Unfortunately, sometimes automated bots invade forums and spam users, or allow users to engage in offensive conduct.

Recommended solutions: Publish a content policy, Captcha, Report a violation, Trusted users, User-moderators, Disable ad serving until review, Content filtering, Content reviewers.

Photos, music and file sharing

Sharing photos, music or other files can be a great way to build a community around shared interests or creativity. However, these same services can be abused to violate copyright, push virus-laden or unwanted software, or otherwise violate our programme policies. Ensure that any content shared via a site or app complies with our programme policies if ads are served alongside such content.

Recommended solutions: Publish a content policy, Captcha, Report a violation, Trusted users, User-moderators, Disable ad serving until review, Content filtering, Content reviewers.

Dating

Online dating sites and apps can often include revealing images that are not family-safe. Though these images may be permitted by the site or app, non-family-safe images are prohibited under our programme policies. Therefore, please do not monetise, for example, photos that are non-family-safe or dating profiles that contain non-family-safe content.

Lastly, if a site or app is primarily-oriented toward adult dating, in other words "sex dating", it is likely not suitable for AdSense or AdMob.

Recommended solutions: Publish a content policy, Report a violation, Assess risk, Disable ad serving until review, Content filtering, Content reviewers.

Good strategies for managing user-generated content

Using the 'site:' search operator to find violations

Finding content on your own site is easy with Google Search. By using the 'site:' search operator in your query, you're instructing Google to return search results only from your own site. You can use this feature to identify content that (i) may be in violation of the Google Publisher Policies or (ii) be in scope of the Google Publisher Restrictions, which will limit the advertising that you receive, by following these few steps:

The basics

1. Open Google Search.
2. Copy the following query into the Google Search field and click the Google Search button:
   • site:publisher_site.com
   • Don’t forget to change 'publisher_site.com' to your own domain name.
3. To expand your search, it’s advisable to make sure that Filter explicit results is not ticked in SafeSearch. You can find the SafeSearch settings in the top right-hand corner of your search results page.

Refining your query

4. To help find content that might be in scope of either the Google Publisher Policies or the Google Publisher Restrictions, try adding keywords to your original query. For example:
   • To find adult content and possible violations, try using queries like:
     • site:publisher_site.com sex
     • site:publisher_site.com erotic
     • site:publisher_site.com escort
   • To find copyright violations (such as illegal file-sharing):
     • site:publisher_site.com dvdrip
     • site:publisher_site.com streaming
     • site:publisher_site.com watch free
   • Sale of restricted and illegal content:
     • site:publisher_site.com tobacco
     • site:publisher_site.com rifle
     • site:publisher_site.com heroin
   • Gambling:
     • site:publisher_site.com poker
     • site:publisher_site.com blackjack
     • site:publisher_site.com texas hold'em
5. You can also use Google Image Search to view pictures that correspond to your query. This is particularly useful for finding content that's more graphic in nature, such as adult content. After experimenting with the above examples, simply click the Images link below the search box to see images returned by your query

For more information about content that's prohibited or restricted, and to get inspiration for your queries, review the Google Publisher Policies and the Google Publisher Restrictions.

Content filtering

Content filtering refers to an automatic system put in place to process large volumes of data and take action on any content that meets certain criteria. Publishers often use text and media-filtering solutions to handle the bulk of the user-generated content on their site. These systems are often put in place to filter content such as adult and illegal filesharing as well as the sale of firearms, drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

Important: The violating content doesn't have to be hosted locally. Even linking to external sources that host it is considered a violation. For example, a publisher framing movies hosted illegally on a third-party site is violating the Google Publisher Policies.

Developing an in-house solution

Many publishers choose to develop their own filtering system. This decision can have the following benefits:

• Text-based filtering can be relatively easy to code
• It is often significantly cheaper than commercial solutions
• The publisher knows their site and users best and can anticipate policy issues better than anyone else

Following are a few ideas and suggestions to consider when developing an in-house text-based solution.

Commercial solutions in a nutshell

There are a number of services that provide content filtering, even a few that specialise in filtering specific types like adult or copyrighted content. There are also crowdsourcing platforms that create a bridge between publishers and users looking to make easy money on the Internet. The best way to approach this is to do some market research on the topic and decide on the best solution for the service that you are providing. Try looking for sites that review software and see what kinds of user-generated content filtering systems they are recommending. After having all of this information at hand you should decide on the best solution for you based on the product’s score, its unique features as well as its pricing model.

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