Facebook and Instagram will restrict how advertisers can target users under 18, the platforms' parent company Meta announced on Tuesday.
Advertisers from next month will no longer be able to target teenagers based on gender, although they will still be able to see their age and location.
Meta also confirmed that it would introduce new control features in March to allow teenagers to have the choice to see fewer ads in their app settings. However, it will not be possible to completely turn off ads for certain products or services.
Digital rights campaigners have often called for social media platforms to do more to control the targeting of adverts for younger users.
The Wall Street Journal revealed in 2021 that the company knew that Instagram was having a harmful effect on teenage girls' mental health. The news outlet cited Facebook studies that had looked at the impact of Instagram on its younger users, with teenage girls being particularly vulnerable.
Harmful effects on younger users
This is not the first time Meta has been forced to review its impact on teenage users. Instagram was fined €405m by Ireland's data regulator in September 2022 for allowing teens to create business accounts that publicly showed their phone numbers and email addresses.
In 2021, Instagram announced a measure to move teens away from content that could potentially be dangerous if they spend too long on the app.
But given that social media platforms optimise their products to keep users glued to their screens, it is unclear how far this feature actually will go in controlling how teens experience Instagram.
After years of accusation on the nefarious uses of targeted advertising, Meta said in a blog post on Tuesday that the advertising restrictions would look into how "teens aren’t necessarily as equipped as adults to make decisions about how their online data is used for advertising.”
Yet the company has not actually banned all advertising for teenagers. It will still allow age and location targeting which it says are key to show ads that are age-appropriate and location-specific.
