Social media companies should prevent ads from targeting teens

Profiling of teenagers is a ‘breach of their privacy’, say campaigners

The Financial Times reports on an open letter from a number of campaigners, academics and lawyers urging tech platforms to stop allowing advertisements aimed at teenagers. The group claims that teenagers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and that profiling designed to sell them products breaches their right to privacy. While there are already restrictions on alcohol and gambling ads, the letter demands that ‘all targeted advertising should stop’. Google pointed out that advertisers cannot target ads to users under the age of 13, says the paper, and the first demographic targeting option is the 18-24 bracket.

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