Meta to block ads targeting teens based on gender as of February

Meta, owner of Instagram and Facebook, said Tuesday it will no longer allow advertisers to target ads to teenagers based on gender as it fights allegations that its platforms are harming young users.

As of February, the social media giant said advertisers, the source of the company’s massive revenue, could now only use age and location when targeting ads worldwide to teenagers.

Another break from practice resumes a teenage boy’s earlier activity Meta-Own apps will no longer inform the ads they see, the company said.

In a blog post, Meta said the changes came about because they recognize “teens aren’t necessarily as equipped as adults to make decisions about how their online data is used for advertising.”

Meta said the changes reflect feedback from parents and experts, and would conform to new rules in several countries for content targeted at young people.

The previously known company Facebook is facing increasing pressure and fines to curb its practice of serving narrowly targeted ads to its users, a practice that brings in billions of dollars in revenue for advertisers each year.

After a lengthy legal battle, the Silicon Valley titan was fined 390 million euros (around Rs. 3,400 billion) last week as part of a years-long dispute with the European Union over advertising.

Of even greater concern for the Mark Zuckerberg-founded firm, European regulators also rejected the legal basis Meta used to justify collecting users’ personal information for use in targeted advertising.

Google and Apple have also been investigated and fined by regulators for violating privacy laws through targeted advertising.

In the US, Meta and other social media giants have mostly been scrutinized by local authorities, with statewide laws blocked due to intense lobbying by tech giants and a politically divided Congress in Washington.

The public school district in the US city of Seattle last week filed a lawsuit against tech giants, including Meta, over alleged mental harm, depression and anxiety among students.

Public school officials said they would “blame social media companies for the damage they have caused to the social, emotional and mental health of teenagers.”