Adult [adult] - Google Merchant Center Help (2025)

Use the adult [adult] attribute to indicate that individual products are for adults only because they contain adult content such as nudity, sexually suggestive content, or are intended to enhance sexual activity.

In this article

  • When to use
  • Format
  • Minimum requirements
  • Best practices

We care what we show to our customers, so if your business model is not adult oriented but you’re selling an individual adult-oriented product, you must label that product clearly so we can show appropriate and legally compliant content to people shopping online.

When to use

Adult [adult] - Google Merchant Center Help (1) Required if a product contains adult content such as nudity, sexually suggestive content, or is intended to enhance sexual activity

If an individual product is defined as adult oriented according to our policy, restrict that product to adults only using the adult [adult] attribute. Learn more about our policy on adult-oriented content.

If your website is generally focused on an adult audience and contains adult-oriented content with or without nudity, use the account level settings instead.

If you use the classic Merchant Center experience:

  1. In your Merchant Center, click the tools and settings iconAdult [adult] - Google Merchant Center Help (2)and select Account settings.
  2. Expand the “Adult content” panel, and check the box next to “My website primarily contains adult-oriented content (for example, erotic lingerie) as defined by Google's Policy.”
  3. If you check the box, you don't need to submit the adult attribute for individual products.

If you use Merchant Center Next:

  1. Navigate to your Merchant Center account.
  2. Find the “Your business” section and select the “Business details” tab.
  3. Click on Edit details.
  4. Scroll to the bottom and check the box for “Adult content”.

Format

Follow these formatting guidelines to make sure Google understands the data you're submitting.

Learn when and how to submit your product data in English

These are the supported values for this attribute:

Yes [yes] / True [true]

No [no] / False [false]

Type Boolean
Supported values
(Text and XML feeds)

yes

true

no

false

Supported values
(Content API feeds)

true

false

Repeated field No
File format Example entry
Text feeds yes
XML feeds <g:adult>yes</g:adult>

To format your data for content API, see the Content API for Shopping resource.

Note: To ensure that this product data attribute gets recognized by our system correctly, remember to submit your data source file in a format that we support.

Minimum requirements

These are the requirements you'll need to meet to show your product. If you don't follow these requirements, we'll disapprove your product and let you know in your Merchant Center account.

  • Submit either yes or no. If an individual product is not adult oriented, then you don’t need to submit no. We’ll assume that your product is not adult oriented if you don’t submit the attribute and if your site isn't set as adult oriented at the account level.
  • Don’t show adult-oriented products on the landing page of a product that isn’t adult oriented. If you’re also advertising products that aren’t adult oriented, make sure that their landing pages are free of adult-oriented content. If that’s not possible, then set your entire site or those individual products as adult oriented.

Best practices

These best practices can help you go beyond the basic requirements to optimize your product data for performance.

  • Don't use the adult attribute to indicate age group. For example, if you want to indicate that you’re selling "adult-sized" shoes, and not "kids" shoes, use the age group [age_group] attribute.
  • Don't use the adult attribute for alcohol. Check how to label alcohol products using the Google product category [google_product_category] attribute to ensure products are shown to an appropriate audience.

Additional guidelines

Review each section closely to determine if the requirements apply to your country or product. If you don't follow requirements that apply to you, we'll disapprove your product and let you know in your Merchant Center account.

Retailer-defined bundles

  • Submit the adult [adult] attribute with a value of yes for the entire bundle if any product in a bundle is considered adult. Learn more about the bundle attribute

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Adult [adult] - Google Merchant Center Help (2025)

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