Google and Meta Found Exploiting Loopholes to Advertise to Teenagers

According to the Financial Times, Google and Meta had teamed up to boost ads that targeted younger audiences (i.e. underage – between 13 to 17 years). Even though underage based ad targeting is against Google’s rules, it found some loopholes to use ad targeting for young audiences. Google worked on the project to advertise Instagram on YouTube to audiences within the age ranges of 13 to 17 years old.

The Times reports that Google’s staff proposed the idea of advertising to Meta because there is a group of users Google has labeled as “unknown”. Google also told Meta that they get more daily engagements from 13-17 years old than Instagram and TikTok. The report also stated that Google and Meta partnered up with a media agency called Spark Foundry which helped them launch this marketing strategy in Canada between February and April.

As this marketing program was doing good, Meta and Google decided to try it out in the USA in May. There were plans that Google will expand this program in other regions too, along with campaigning for other Meta apps. But Google soon shut down the project after it was contacted by The Times.

When The Times reached Google, the company told the publication that their company prohibits ads being personalized to younger audiences. Google said that it didn’t target audiences under 18 directly and only rolled out ads for groups of the audience which were unlabeled. That being said, Google didn’t deny using the loopholes for ads on YouTube and only said they are enforcing additional measures to keep advertisers and agencies away from younger audiences on the platform.