Facebook agreed that ads related to gambling, smoking, alcohol consumption, and extreme weight loss are negatively targeting teenage children.
An Australian research group created a Facebook with the Ozzie News Network to explore the advertising options. And this page was able to produce target ads, made on summarizing by the tech giant for 3$ (2.16 Euro).
And Facebook said that software reviews each ad before and after publication. Expert advises avoiding all these problems with the children. Because if someone is advertising on our platform, they must obey our policies and laws.
So, there must be an age restriction tool on the ads for all business to control that who can reach to their content.
Last year the UK introduced the Age Appropriate Design Code to protect children’s privacy. And now Facebook prohibits the advertisements of alcohols and other inappropriate products to under-18 individuals.
Facebook offers a platform to a total of 740,000 teenage Australian children.
After research, Facebook recognized that
- 52,000 Australian teenage children are interested in alcohol and searched for the cocktail recipe.
- One thousand children are found interested in vape pens and smoking.
- Fourteen thousand of these children are interested in gambling, betting, and extreme weight loss.
Cost of targeted advertisement
The target advertisement tool cost:
- Gambling and betting -A$11.24
- Alcohol – A$3.03
The Executive director of Reset Australia, Chris Cooper, said that Facebook seems to use the data of teenagers as they use the data of adults. There is a point to think that how Facebook uses underage data. And what kind of protection measures they have against inappropriate targeting.
Is it OK that a 15-year old child shows interest in alcohol and sees ads based on cocktail recipes?
And, on the other hand, a 14 years old is watching ads about betting and gambling or ads related to political extremism.