Cougars an endangered species on Google

The founder of a Toronto-based dating website for older women looking for younger men (i.e., cougars) has accused Google of sexism for labeling its Internet ads as "unsafe for family audiences," while ads for the reverse, older men and younger women, are not labeled the same.

The site, CougarLife, has been around for 15 months. It's signed up more than 500,000 members since its launch. Reportedly, they've been paying Google $100,000 per month.

CougarLife was founded by Claudia Opdenkelder, 39, herself a cougar, living with a 25-year-old. The company asked Google if they could make adjustments to the ads, and they were told by Google:

“Making adjustments ... won’t really help, since the policy is focused particularly around the concept of ‘cougar dating’ as a whole.”

It's not as though the ads were over the top. They featured photos of a man or woman smiling accompanied by the words, “Think all the good guys are taken?”

Additionally, while a Google rep told the National Post, “It’s not just about the ad, it’s about the ad and the landing page of the site. Anything that’s considered non-family safe will not run on the Google content network at this point," it's hard to understand that statement. Going to the CougarLife's site brings up the image above, hardly all that racy.

Realistically, you can also find plenty of sugar daddy site ads sponsored by Google, and no problems with them being "family unfriendly," either.

Here's what Opdenkelder said:

“What Google has done is make older women feel dirty just because we date younger men. Why does anyone care who we date? It’s not like we’re after little boys. It’s a relationship site, like match.com or eharmony.

“We had a Mother’s Day special and 23,000 women signed up, a lot of them single moms and recent divorcees. Is Google calling them perverts?

“It’s insane. The most ridiculous thing ever.”

Watch a CougarLife video. What do you think?