Overview

We regularly receive requests to recategorize popular domains  - sites such as Google, Youtube, DailyMotion, Reddit, Discord, etc.  Many times, the request is to have them added to the Pornography, Nudity, Sexuality, and/or Adult Themes category. While we encourage you to report any domain that you believe is miscategorized (or uncategorized), it's important to remember that the categorization is based on the function of the site more so than just the content accessible through it. Taking Google as an example, while it has the Image Search and Search Engine categories attached to it, the content of the images does not factor into the categorization - so even though you can find images of baseball players, the domain will not be categorized as Sports. 
 

Official Category Definitions

As of May 2021, the criteria we use for our domain categorizations are available here, however, we have included a more detailed explanation for these specific categories down below. Please keep in mind however that these are not all-inclusive definitions, and categorization is still applied at the discretion of our security research team.  

Adult Themes

Adult Themes—Sites that are adult in nature and are not defined in other rating categories.

This is a fairly broad category and serves as a catch-all for domains that feature mature content, but not to the extent that they fall under other categories. Sites that deal with relationships (dating, breakups, marriage, divorce, LGBT, etc) commonly fall under this category. 

Nudity

Nudity—Sites that provide images or representations of nudity.

The nudity category is applied to domains that feature non-sexual nudity. For example, a site that has content pertaining to or images of live art models, or nudist lifestyles would be categorized as nudity, as the nudity that is involved is not overtly sexual in nature. A basic test for Nudity is "Are they doing anything sexually explicit, or are they just not fully clothed?"

Pornography

Pornography—Anything relating to pornography, including mild depiction, soft pornography, or hard-core pornography.

The pornography category is for any site with depictions of sexual acts, rather it be with images, videos, or text, it would fall under this category, however, the intent does serve as a major distinguishing factor. For example, the website for an adult publication would be categorized as Pornography, however, a site with information about safe sex practices would fall under Sex Education. 

Sexuality

Sexuality—Sites that provide information, images, or implications of bondage, sadism, masochism, fetish, beating, body piercing, or self-mutilation. This category is not intended for LGBT-related sites that do not fall under the aforementioned criteria.

Our use of the sexuality category is fairly rigid and does not actually cover many topics that would be considered as pertaining to sexuality in general (such as sites for the LGBT community). If the site pertains specifically to bondage, sadism, masochism, fetish, beating, body piercing, or self-mutilation, in any capacity, then it would fall under this category. Anything else, even if sexual in nature, would be categorized elsewhere.