Meta, the parent company of social media networks Instagram and Facebook, regularly accused of harming the mental health of young audiences, has decided not to allow advertisers to target teens based on their gender.
Starting in February 2023, advertisers who want to advertise to minors on these platforms will only have access to their age and location, to ensure that ad content is appropriate and useful, Meta explained Tuesday in a post. on your site.
Adverse effects in young people
The company led by Mark Zuckerberg, which has already stopped allowing advertisers to learn about the history of adolescents on other sites since the summer of 2021, has also decided to extend this limitation to its own platforms.
The group also plans to make it easier for those under 18 to indicate when they want to receive fewer ads on certain topics, such as a genre of TV series or a specific sport.
US elected officials and child protection associations criticize apps that are particularly popular among young people, such as Instagram, but also Snapchat, YouTube or TikTok, for having harmful effects on their youngest users.
A complaint for “harm” to mental health
The allegations took on a new dimension when, in the fall of 2021, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen leaked internal documents showing that the platform’s leaders were aware of certain risks to minors. Since then, companies have tried to give guarantees about the protection of adolescents.
In the summer of 2022, a California law was passed to install the highest level of data protection for minors on social networks by default. The objective is to prohibit the collection, exchange or sale of this personal information when it is not necessary for the proper functioning of the service.
However, these efforts are insufficient according to some: Seattle public school officials, in the United States, filed a complaint on Friday, January 6, against various social networks accusing them of “attacks” on the mental health of minors.
“The rise in mental health-related suicides, suicide attempts and emergency room visits is no coincidence. (…) This crisis was already worsening before the pandemic and research has identified the networks as an important factor in the development of mental health problems in young people,” they wrote in their complaint.
Source: BFM TV
