Dance in the Vampire Bund, Sponsored on Youtube by AT&T (among others)
According to Google Adsense Terms of Service (TOS) simply linking to pornography (legal or not) is a violation, that is unless a website has enough traffic to make it worthwhile.
Manga & anime (Japanese comics and cartoons) frequently involve characters of questionable age in sexual situations but there’s nothing ambiguous about the genres known as Lolicon and Shotacon, in which clearly prepubescent girls and boys are blatantly sexualized. While no actual children are involved, these images are still considered illegal under the United States’ Protect Act and the UK’s Coroners and Justice Act.
Nevertheless Google ads can be found on websites with lolicon titles such as:
This ad for Disney World appears directly under a picture of a child masturbating with a shower head (mangavolume.com).
Dance in the Vampire Bund, about a prepubescent vampire in love with a 17-year-old werewolf (child nudity in both manga & anime)
Kodomo No Jikan, about a 3rd grader whose stepfather wants to marry her but she wants to be with her teacher (child nudity, masturbation, molestation in both manga & anime).
Omamori Himari, about a demon hunter with a harem of female demons, including a prepubescent girl who takes her clothes off and dry humps the main character to heal him in episode 5 (nudity is censored but the orgasmic moaning is not)
Chu-Bra!!, about middle school children that start an underwear club (child nudity and fondling in both manga & anime)
But it’s not really surprising that Google is advertising on these sites considering they themselves are showing Dance in the Vampire Bund (albeit a somewhat censored version) on Youtube, which is owned by Google.
While Google certainly isn’t the only company helping to sponsor lolicon, it is the largest and supposedly the most respected. And it’s not as if these sites are under the radar. Many of them are in the Top 1000 Adsense sites (http://serversiders.com/toplist/adsense) and include: Animextremist.com (#237), Mangaupdates.com (#549), Mangatoshokan.com (#833), and Foroanime.com (#900). Nor is the content hidden. In fact, it’s often openly advertised under the aforementioned Lolicon and Shotacon genres. These sites even advertise themselves with Google Adwords using specific lolicon titles like “Kodomo No Jikan” as keywords. In other words, there’s no plausible deniability here. I confronted Google about this 2 weeks ago, but none of these sites have been banned so I’ve contacted the companies being advertised on them directly and will post their responses here.
Below are some examples with the companies sponsoring them in bold. Most of the ads are from the University of San Francisco Online (usanfranonline.com) & PRweb.com which don’t seem to care where their ads appear in general, but there are many more established organizations that you’d think would keep better track of where their advertising dollars are going such as: AT&T, Verizon, Disney, All State, Ace, Circuit City, Gillette, Frito Lay, American Express, ESPN and even the NATIONAL GUARD!
Not Safe for Work (NSFW) or anywhere else (for reference only)!
http://www.animelime.com/category/chu-bra/ Circuit City, University of San Francisco Online
http://watchanimeonline.net/category/kodomo-no-jikan-second-term
http://www.animenetzone.com/chu-bra-english-subbed University of San Francisco
http://www.animenetzone.com/dance-in-the-vampire-bund-english-subbed PRweb.com
http://www.newfreeanime.com/watch/chu-bra!!/index.html University of San Francisco, American Express, chitika.com, Netflix
http://www.newfreeanime.com/watch/dance_in_the_vampire_bund/index.html
http://www.crazypandamanga.com/anime/dance_in_the_vampire_bund/
http://www.anivoid.com/index.php?mod=media&cid=508
http://www.anivoid.com/index.php?mod=media&cid=517
http://www.crunchyroll.com/library/Chu-Bra ATT&T , All State, Ace, American Express
http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-538536/omamori-himari-5/
http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/Chu-bra/biri-biri/2/13 lindasonline.com
http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/Dance-in-the-Vampire-Bund/AZNMAN/1/23
http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/Kodomo-no-Jikan/SaHa/44/21
http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/Kodomo-no-Jikan/SaHa/11 American caner society
http://www.mangavolume.com/index.php?serie=kodomo-no-jikan&chapter=kodomo-no-jikan-11&page_nr=1
http://www.mangavolume.com/index.php?serie=kodomo-no-jikan&chapter=kodomo-no-jikan-44&page_nr=21
Disney, ESPN, Optimum, Superpages.com, Fullsail.edu, Chitika.com
http://www.maxmanga.net/online_manga/5630-1.html?t=19&n=26
http://www.maxmanga.net/online_manga/1572-11.html
http://mangahelpers.com/downloads/read-online/6854/22 Lay’s Potato Chips, Superpages.com, Americansforthearts.org, American Express, Meridianhealth.com
http://www.onemanga.com/Dance_in_the_Vampire_Bund/1/21/
http://www.onemanga.com/Dance_in_the_Vampire_Bund/23/13/
http://www.onemanga.com/Dance_in_the_Vampire_Bund/26/09/
http://animextremist.com/imagenes/dance-in-the-vampire-bund/
http://animextremist.com/imagenes/kodomo-no-jikan/index2.html
http://www.anxworld.net/index.php?showtopic=23055&st=0&p=1209920&hl=kodomo&fromsearch=1&#entry1209920 (animextremist.com forum)
http://manga.animea.net/kodomo-no-jikan-chapter-44-page-21.html Verizon, National Guard
http://manga.animea.net/kodomo-no-jikan-chapter-11-page-1.html
http://www.animeftw.tv/videos/dance-in-the-vampire-bund/ep-2
http://foroanime.com/foros-de-anime/hgames-descarga-directa-79/anime-descarga-directa-pack-de-flash-lolicon-89292.html aeriagames.com Grand Fantasia (Forum require registration, WARNING: EXPLICIT CHILD PORN)
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/dance_in_the_vampire_bund/v01/c001/23.html American express, aeriagames.com Grand Fantasia, FullSail.edu, Chitika
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/kodomo_no_jikan/v07/c044/21.html
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/chu_bra/v01/c002/13.html
http://www.mangafox.com/search/genres/Lolicon/ (Lolicon has its own section)
http://www.mangafox.com/search/genres/Shotacon/ (Shotacon has its own section)
http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?genre=Lolicon (Lolicon has its own section) PRweb.com, University of San Francisco Online
http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?genre=Shotacon (Shotacon has its own section)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4ifu778Vj0 Dance in the Vampire Bund AT&T, Guinness Atkinson Funds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX2fsTYfGB8 Omamori Himari Episode 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyIMx_NDZdY Kodomo no Jikan ni gakki OVA 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GtVoeGouLQ&feature=related Kodomo no Jikan ni gakki OVA 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZLNo5ST5Rg Kodomo no Jikan OVA
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=videos&search_query=kodomo+no+jikan&search_sort=video_view_count&suggested_categories=1%2C10&page=2
(thumbnail of child’s exposed chest and panties) Gillette, Sun chips fritolay.com
COMPANY RESPONSES:
Gillette:
We appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Whether it’s websites or television programs, if it doesn’t fit our criteria for family-friendly viewing, we’re not sure why our ad would appear. We specifically request ads for our products not be aired during controversial programs, and I’m sharing your message with our sponsorship team. You can be sure we’ll continue to examine our sponsorship principles and actions.
Thanks again for letting us know.
Janet
Gillette Team
Aeria Games
Thank you for letting us know of this situation. We are writing back to
let you know that your message has been sent to the following
departments:
Management (Because we want them to know about a problem this serious)
Marketing (So that they can look into ways to resolve this)
Network Operations (So that they can look into ways that we can block
this on our end)
We can not know how this will be resolved, but from past experience, we
can say that it will most likely be complicated.
We here at Aeria Games would like to maintain a family friendly
enviornmment, and despite allowing some adult (18+) content, we do not
support, condone, or want to be assocaited in any way with child
pornography. We would like to thank you for doing your part in make our
site (and the world in general) a better place.
Team Aeria
Frito-Lay
Thank you for writing to us. We appreciate your email regarding this sensitive concern. We have forwarded your note to our legal and advertising groups for further review/investigation. Frito-Lay is a family friendly company and would never intentionally advertise in conjunction with such inappropriate businesses. We will be taking steps to ensure similar actions do not take place in the future.
Tina
Frito-Lay Consumer Affairs
Optimum
Thank you for your recent inquiry. We have escalated this issue to the proper department for investigation. Thank you for bringing our attention to this matter.
Sharon
Cablevision – Shared Services
UPDATE:
First of all, I don’t have a problem with opposing opinions so long as they more than just curse words with fake emails. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to moderate them sooner because I’ve been sick (which I sure some of you will be glad to here).
Secondly, the point of the article is not that lolicon should be banned or that anyone who reads it should be put in jail. The point (which I stated in the beginning) is the hypocrisy in allowing sites with material that clearly violates Google’s TOS (or worse) simply because they’re profitable. I could have written the same article about Google partnering with websites like Gawker.com & PerezHilton.com, which have adult pornographic material, but that has already been pointed out by many already to no avail. But I bet I got their attention now.
FINAL UPDATE
I’ve closed comments as many are unfit to post and the rest are mostly about censorship and manga being banned, which isn’t the case. No manga, certainly not the adult variety, have been banned. Some websites have voluntarily taken down content to comply with Google’s TOS. All these manga are and will continue to get scanlated, they just won’t be hosted on websites with adsense. And for that I’m not sorry.
Loading ...
I appreciate your opinion, and I believe child abuse is wrong, but this article had some negative repercussions for me. I don’t read shota or loli, and I don’t like it, but I do read yaoi, yuri, shoujo ai, and shonen ai. Partly because of this article, even those things have been removed. You keep saying how the article’s about advertising, but you should have been more specific. People are taking it the wrong way for a reason, and as a result of your poorly communicated message, there is no removal of google advertising, only more censorship of harmless material. Please be more careful when you act out. It may seem insignificant to you, but it’s important to other people, and I have to say that even if it sounds stupid, some of the most moving stories I’ve read have been about same couples. I appreciate the cause, but I don’t appreciate what you’ve done. I guess all I can say is ‘Thanks a lot.’
Oh, and while we’re at it, you reviewed Kodomo no Jikan and liked it? All I can say is lol.
Yep, it’s hilarious and has a good story, but unfortunately there’s no good story exemption in Google’s TOS.
Well thank you first and far most for bringing about Big Brother and reciving your 15 min of fame in one swoop. Due to your gailant efforts many of the sites you have listed have been “Censored”. “I’m anti-censorship. Article has nothing to with censorship or banning, it’s about Google advertising.” You have achieve the exact oppsite of your gold….When you look back on your cursade hope you relize that your good deeds have punish many in the freedom of speech.
Haven’t done anything to freedom of speech. For millionth + time no manga has been banned, just removed for sites with adsense so you know what? Go to a website without adsense. Better yet go directly to scanlators!
Good that you aren’t providing ads for wikipedia. You would have remove them.
vide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hatch,_Evelyn_%28Lewis_Carroll,_29.07.1879%29.jpg
And it’s even a photo! Not a drawing.. No extremity is good dear whoever-is-in-charge-of-it, I hope it won’t lead any further.
Again not my rules but to Google that probably would break TOS, unless it was on perez hilton’s blog.
>> Sites with Google ads may not include or link to:
Pornography, adult or mature content Violent content Content related to racial intolerance or advocacy against any individual, group or organisation Excessive profanity Hacking/cracking content Gambling or casino-related content Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia content Sales of beer or hard alcohol Sales of tobacco or tobacco-related products Sales of prescription drugs Sales of weapons or ammunition (e.g. firearms, firearm components, fighting knives, stun guns) Sales of products that are replicas or imitations of designer goods Sales or distribution of coursework or student essays Content regarding programs which compensate users for clicking ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites or reading emails Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others
by singling out manga which is an Asian cultural item might mean that this site would also fall under that category. (racial intolerance)
Saying certain manga websites violate TOS has nothing to do with race.
i get ur point about the child nudity content. but then the genre lolicon for websites like mangafox onemanga and so on doesn’t mean child porn it just meant that in the story one or more of the main character is a child. and also why did mangaupdates is enlisted there??
its not like manga updates hosted any manga its just like an online library for manga fans, its a community for god sake.
its just listed the genre and the content.
Because and linking to porn is again TOS (first sentence in article).
I can understand why you listed some of the other sites. But seriously, Mangaupdates? That is is just a place to reference and look up the status of different series. Shotacon and lolicon is just two of the many dozens of category it’s listed by.
It’s similar to how wikipedia has pages dedicated to explaining what lolicon and shotacon is (plus the dozen or so different terms for sex). And I don’t see you putting wikipedia on that list of yours…
Wiki doesn’t use Google ads.
Yes, lolicon and shotacon are bad.
But what you are doing to everyone who enjoy other kind of mature manga is bas.
I am 26 years old and i have the right to read mature manga. Josei, Yuri, Yaoi, Ecchi.
Because of your little witch hunt, most of the web site where we can find theses manga are taking them off of there web site.
It is the responsability of the parent to know what there childrens are reading or watching on the internet.
If you want to hurt google, hurt google.
If you want to ask the website that host lolicon and shotacon not to host them. Do it.
But dont hurt everything and everyone else on the way…
(
Caro
*Sorry for all the mistakes i probably make while writing… English is not my first language.
Ok, so I get the you don’t want Google to be putting up adds in places that the companies wouldn’t appreciate, I get that. I also get that you want all people to have to follow the rules. But for all your talk about not wanting censorship, you do realize that was the ultimate end of all this right? These websites you have pointed out have been stripped of absolutely all content that can be referred to as ‘mature’, all because of this one post. Manga and Anime that simply had some questionable content thrown into a great story line are no longer available for me to access because of all of this, and they have all been censored out. Did you honestly expect anything different?
When you posted this, Google was forced to take notice, but they don’t really care. They simply issued out a warning, and it was the website owners that had to scramble to please them. You have caused innumerable problems for what amounts to a fractional inconvenience. Way to go and thanks a lot.
I am curious as to why you only chose to use anime/manga sites? There are many more sites out there that have cartooned/painted children in sexual situations that are even more realistic than the art in anime/manga.
Also, I am aware that you did not mean for this article to censor anything, etc, but it seems to have had the opposite affect entirely. Many of the sites you listed were trolled by people that read this article, and many of the sites have reduced their content, which reduced traffic. The ads are still very much the same, and there are even new ones because some of those sites listed above are now 100% “family friendly”. So, when the sites get the courage to start re-adding the removed content, the issue will have just be worse.
I am not criticizing you, as I am completely aware of what your goals were and where you were coming from when you wrote this article, but I do think there is a better why to have gone about solving this issue.
I think the problem itself lies with Google for not following their own TOS. Or at least, that’s how you made the article sound. The way you wrote the article made it seem like you were blaming anime/manga websites. That is why people are having such a huge problem with your article. If you want something done, I would recommend getting a group of people together to essentially spam Google to get their attention, or the attention of the media, to alert the public on Google’s hypocrisy, since that was what you were aiming for.
If I was wrong in any way, I apologize – that is just what I thought based on your article and some of the comments.
Like I’ve said people have long complained about the hypocrisy using non-manga examples. Google search “perezhilton adsense” Unfortunately Google doesn’t care if they make enough money, that’s great for Perez Hilton, MangaFox, etc. but everyone else gets screwed is the problem. You either enforce a TOS or you don’t.
Wow US is turning into Australia… I think at least it was Australia who censored everything online. Yaay.
But yeah, isn’t it a bit too late for banning this stuff?
No one’s banning anything.
Obviously not?
http://forums.mangafox.com/showthread.php?t=164426
I think you just screwed a site over for all eternity? Thanks.
NOPE. They screwed themselves by breaking TOS.
No one is banning? Google Ads just told Manga Fox to remove anything adult or porn related content in the site. Thus my manga source is getting rid of some of my favorite manga just cause they have a ‘mature theme’
That’s not banning. It’s a voluntarily removal to keep google ads. Is cartoon network banning lolicon? No they choose not show it.
Er, that’s China, but… no one’s really banning anything, but some sites are getting rid of those materials so as not to lose their Ad’s *rolls eyes at stupidity of it all*
I understand your idea behind the article.
But i would like to know what you wanted the article to achieve ??
i am sure for someone clever enough to find a way to attack google’s hypocrisy thru their sponsors directly, u ought to have had some idea atleast that google aren’t going to do anything big about it, its gotta be the websites you have mentioned here. from the websites you have mentioned, its clear you couldn’t have found so many links if you do not yourself read manga online avidly, So i come to the why?
what did you want your article to achieve?
P.S – i am not criticizing the article here, i am simply curious.
Equality among adsense members, and while I wouldn’t they I’ve accomplished that, we’re one step closer.
…What does your response mean?
“and while I wouldn’t they I’ve accomplished that”
Did you mean “say” instead of “they”?
And what do you mean by “equality”? Are you protesting unfair ad revenue of sites who are non compliant to Google TOS? Or are you protesting Google’s lack of stringent screening of its ad subsidiaries/locations?
I’m just not clear as to what the intent of your article is except as a rallying point for censorship.
Cheers!
Just like I said in first sentence, it’s unfair that TOS doesn’t get enforce if your website has enough traffic. I think Google should allow any website so long as it is illegal, but if they’re gonna screw the little guys they better do the same to the big guys.
i get ur point but i still loled
google and other advertising companies are simply fulfilling market needs (ppl needs)
ppl are lookin for info and thats what they get also sites like Mangaupdates.com are simply gathering info and thats all u can find there so whats wrong with that?
not to mention u re saying u re against censorship but thats what u re askin for so whos hypocrite here
ragards
Never asked for anything to be censored just not sponsored by google as its against TOS.
You do realize that google dropped mangaupdates.com.
What you need to realize is that manga updates is not a hentai site!
Mangaupdates is a site that tells people when a manga chapter is out.
It does not provide the manga iself on the website.
I personally do not care about lolicon or shotocon,all of the sites that have the manga on the site to actually read can do what they want.
Insulting a legitamate INFORMATION SITE will not help anyone.If you dont want children to see a 13 year old in a towel then you might as well tell them not to read manga at all(half the manga has that stuff) and tell said childs sister to only take baths when the child not inside.
Do you get what i mean?
Manga is MANGA as long as it exist its going to have something you dont like in it.
Not only are this debate pathetic it’s pointless.
Another person who complains about something they didn’t read.
just LINKING even to a SEPARATE site with pornographic material in against Google’s TOS.
Aren’t you gonna update your article, Mark Putnam? Most of the manga communities already removed lolicon/shotacon/mature manga/anime. If you gonna post something to complaint, you better take responsibility and removed sites which no longer have those contents. Don’t just write one article and leave it like that, that’s irresponsible=.= And i cant read most mangas already as we speak.
Why can’t you read manga, did your glasses fall off?
My last update will probably be closing comments (soon)
Well, first of all, Most manga is not translated in our countries and, perhaps, never will be.
Now that most of them are gone, It IS a problem for us.
We enjoyed reading some stories.
I’m not a big fan of shota and loli, But I am a yaoi and yuri fan.
But, Since those categories have also been removed, I am displeased.
I am not blaming you for the loss of the yaoi and yuri categories, I am just wondering WHY they would remove them if they are just representations of homosexual couples?
Because any Sexual content is against Google’s TOS. Doesn’t matter if it’s straight or gay, adult or child, real or drawn.