Advertising is unavoidable and relentless in the modern world, and while most of it is harmless enough, some ads can be undesirable or even dangerous to certain people. YouTube recognized this and introduced the Ad Settings hub back in 2020 with the ability to restrict ads related to alcohol and gambling. This was always intended to be a first step, and now YouTube is adding several new categories that users can choose to turn off.

youtube ad categories

In the first expansion since the Ad Settings hub was introduced, YouTube is adding controls to disable ads focusing on pregnancy & parenting, dating, and weight loss.

Much like alcohol and gambling ads, which have a well-documented history of reviving dangerous patterns in addicts, the new weight loss category will allow people to avoid ads that may trigger dangerous eating habits ranging from starvation to binge eating, or preventing them from trying unsafe dietary supplements.

YouTube seems to be showing special interest in privacy with the addition of controls to opt out of ads for pregnancy & parenting and dating. We’ve all heard the now infamous story about a Target store that predicted a girl was pregnant based on her recent purchases, and then purportedly outed this to her father by sending a booklet featuring maternity products. While this specific story has been all but completely debunked, situations like this are bound to happen from time to time as a result of targeted advertisements appearing within view or earshot of other people. With the option to block ads focused on pregnancy & parenting, it may help some people maintain privacy when they’re expecting; or in the case of dating services, it might avoid outing a person’s sexuality to friends and family.

The options to shut off these ad categories can be found under your Google Account Dashboard -> Data & Privacy -> Ad Settings (Ad Personalization), and then scroll down to the bottom of the next screen. Disabling a category doesn’t necessarily block it entirely, but as Google’s help article explains, ads may still contain a disabled topic as a coincidence (e.g. an airline ad might show somebody with a glass of champagne) or related ads may appear while you search for or watch videos that match the disabled category (e.g. liquor ads can appear on a cocktail channel).