28 April, 2021 by Josh Taylor. From The Guardian.
Social media giant gave organisation behind a page for Australian 13- to 17-year-olds option to run alcohol, smoking and gambling ads for as little as $3.
Facebook is allowing businesses to advertise to children as young as 13 who express an interest in smoking, extreme weight loss and gambling for as little as $3, research by the lobby group Reset Australia has found.
While Facebook will not allow the advertising of alcohol and other age-inappropriate content to people under 18, it does not prevent advertisers from targeting children determined by Facebook’s profile to have an interest in alcohol, for advertising that might not appear explicitly to be about those topics.
Reset Australia has called on the federal government to develop a code regulating how data about young people can be collected and used, saying there should be express consent from children and parents, and full transparency over how the data is used, with only necessary data collected.
Chris Cooper, executive director of Reset Australia said: “Facebook appears to use teenagers’ data in the same way as adults; this opens a can of worms about just how Facebook profits from underage data, and exactly what protection they have against inappropriate targeting.”
To read the full article clink on the following link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/28/facebook-allows-advertisers-to-target-children-interested-in-smoking-alcohol-and-weight-loss.