Why Are Offensive And Malicious Ads Plaguing Online Japan?
Why Are Offensive And Malicious Ads Plaguing Online Japan?
TOKYO — Open a website or an app on your phone, and you may find yourself looking at ads with explicit sexual content, or designed to stoke feelings of inferiority about your looks. Complaints about this kind of advertising have been pouring into a private self-regulatory organization in Japan, and even major IT companies have begun to restrict their distribution.
Why Are Offensive And Malicious Ads Plaguing Online Japan?
In November 2022, a 31-year-old Tokyo resident looking at her smartphone was surprised to see, next to her own blog post about the joy of watching her 2-year-old son grow, a manga-style ad depicting a naked man and woman.
Why Are Offensive And Malicious Ads Plaguing Online Japan?
The blog she opened two months ago is free, but it is designed to automatically display ads along with bloggers’ posts. And she cannot decide what those ads are. The woman said, “I tried to share my worries and joys of child rearing with other people on my blog, but it was ruined. I want the display of ads that offend even bloggers to be stopped.”
Why Are Offensive And Malicious Ads Plaguing Online Japan?
According to the private Japan Advertising Review Organization (JARO), the number of complaints about manga-style online ads with sexual or violent scenes, and those promoting cosmetics and other products using images to emphasize bags under the eyes or skin spots, rose to 4,779 in fiscal 2021. That was fewer than the 5,531 complaints recorded in fiscal 2020, but still high considering that the figure was 1,936 in fiscal 2016.
Why Are Offensive And Malicious Ads Plaguing Online Japan?
Some major IT companies have been forced to act. In April 2020, an online protest campaign was launched against ads displayed on YouTube promoting supplements and other products by emphasizing personal appearance “flaws,” with messages like “fat people are not romantically attractive,” and has gathered about 50,000 signatures so far.
Why Are Offensive And Malicious Ads Plaguing Online Japan?
According to the Japanese subsidiary of Google Inc.,…
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