AdSense Sites for Kids

Any Thoughts on Ad Use?

[santrobi]

I would like to make a site for kids (elementary and middle school age) and use AdSense. What do you think about displaying ads on sites that children would be viewing? Would there be a chance that something inappropriate could come up or can I restrict the ads to display only other kid-friendly sites?

[jetteroheller]

Some weeks ago, my 5 year old doughter came into the web by clicking on the about button of a drawing programm for children.

She clicked with an amazing speed around. Since she can not read, she ignored all AdSense ads on the kids web sites and clicked only on colorful banners.

I wondered about the AdSense ads on this sort of web sites. There occured ads for detectives.

I thought, when kids would click on this ad, the conversion for the advertisier would be 0.

Writing sites for kids is a very interesting plan, but check what sort of ads appear.

[jomaxx]

It seems like a very very poor fit for AdSense for obvious reasons. The conversion rate would be essentially zero, which would be bad from your point of view, but more important is that you'd be wasting the advertisers' money.

[joaquin112]

Dude, don't write a website for children and expect to get paid - you will be wasting your time.

Smart pricing will cut you life a knife.

[figment88]

I get some middle school age kids on my sites (mostly get parents). Ads seem to be almost appropriate but there is one or more bad dating sites that put my keywords in e their titles and then have ad text like "meet christian singles," or "meet black singles." I filter these all the time and complain to support butthey keep coming back with new sites.

[jetteroheller]

I filter these all the time

It should be possible to filter on text shown on the landing page.

I have maybe 20 filter entries with different URLs, but all the same MLM with the same yacht, You will earn after 2 years joining the MLM.

[david_uk]

I suppose there is the issue that accounts can't be held by minors. Although it's being signed up by an adult, I guess G could terminate on those grounds if they felt like it.

The other issue is that kids don't have spending power, so the ads are unlikely to convert for advertisers. You might get a few clicks, but if people don't buy then you are going to be whacked by smartpricing.

And finally, if the site generates a lot of clicks that G might consider fraudulent, (quite likely bearing in mind it's aimed at kids) then G will terminate. That may cause you a problem if you have an adsense account yourself, as they also cancel accounts where there is some association or connection with a banned account.

Having made those points, I do agree with teaching kids about how the real world operates, and I can see where you are coming from with the idea.

[figment88]

kids don't have spending power, so the ads are unlikely to convert for advertisers

There are more reasons to use AdWords than just direct sales.

For some of my sites, I'm happy if I can drive traffic that will load lots of pages, return, tell friends, click my advertisers' links. Kids can do all these things - often better than adults.

[send2paul]

... and you'd have to be very,very careful with the web copy and ad placement for the Google Adsense.

You wouldn't want "inappropriate ads" showing where you'd used the wrong kind of word or phrasing - which could well occur on a childens website. e.g. lets take a bizarre exmaple and you were using an analogy on the website, ( or even reviewing a story), about some children "chasing a dragon"......Lord knows what drug related ads that could bring up!

[maccas]

"kids don't have spending power, so the ads are unlikely to convert for advertisers"

Like ads on TV never target kids? Hey mum/dad can you buy me that toy/doll/etc that I seen on that website.

[jomaxx]

Maybe, but if they click your advertisers' links they still aren't going to buy anything.

I recommend the OP look around at similar websites aimed directly at elementary and middle schoolers, and see what they do to pay the bills. It really doesn't seem like a promising niche, though.

[spaceylacie]

I don't ever know what to buy for my kids(birthdays, etc.), until they tell me! They are 10 and almost 14(on the 27th of this month). Television proves that ads geared toward children can work. On the other hand, I know of, and some may know which site I am talking about, a very popular Internet site for kids that tried Adsense for a while. They are no longer running Adsense but are back to flashy banners.

[david_uk]

kids don't have spending power, so the ads are unlikely to convert for advertisers

Just to clarify:-

I am aware of what pester power is - I have kids of my own! What I meant by this is that advertisers with something to sell need to be paid by credit card - something the average minor does not have. Therefore a lot of enquiries but few sales.

....load lots of pages, return, tell friends, click my advertisers' links. Kids can do all these things - often better than adults.

Now this is exactly what worries me in the context of setting up this site for kids. A lot of them will be very keen to help the cause by going home and spending hours clicking on the ads just to help out, whilst watching TV.

[santrobi]

Thanks all for the advice. The site is to provide info and fun stories or activities around a particular sport that doesn't get much coverage but is still very popular. I was thinking AdSense would be a way to support maintaining the site and the AdSense links would be to other informational sites (how to's, instructional, educational, etc.) about the same topic, not direct sales. But after reading all your comments, I think it would be best to find another means of financial support for the site. Maybe ads on an adult-audience site about the same topic could support both sites. Thanks.

[jomaxx]

Definitely. Ad ad-free kids' site in conjunction with an adults' site would be a great way to build inbound links, bookmarks, general word of mouth, PageRank, etc. There's a very high demand for family-safe sites, and families have parents too.

[toldan]

What do you think about displaying ads on sites that children would be viewing?

What do you consider innapropriate and most importantly WHY?