Meta – the parent company to platforms Facebook and Instagram – has announced plans to tighten restrictions surrounding the data available to advertisers targeting ads at teenagers.
As of February, firms will no longer be able to view a user’s gender or the type of posts they have engaged with, according to The Guardian.
The tech giant has said that new enhanced restrictions will mean that only a user’s location and age will be used to target specific ads at them.
Meta has also announced that in March teenagers will be able to go into the settings pages of Instagram and Facebook and be able to choose to ‘see less’ of certain advertisements.
Prior to this news, the social media firm has attempted in the past to do more to restrict the types of ads specifically targeted at young people. A raft of only safety campaigners have asked social media platforms to increase restrictions on potentially inappropriate, abusive and offensive ads.
“As part of our continued work to keep our apps age-appropriate for teens, we’re making further changes to their ad experiences,” Meta said in a blogpost.
“We recognise that teens aren’t necessarily as equipped as adults to make decisions about how their online data is used for advertising, particularly when it comes to showing them products available to purchase. For that reason, we’re further restricting the options advertisers have to reach teens, as well as the information we use to show ads to teens.”
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Last week, Meta was fined £343 million (€390 million) by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission for breaching EU privacy rules. It was believed by regulators that the company forced users of the apps to agree to personalised advertisements.
The firm said at the time that it would appeal the fine and ruling and would not prevent targeted or personalised advertising on its platforms, according to Sky News.
“The decisions relate only to which legal basis Meta uses when offering certain advertising,” a Meta spokesperson said.
In total, Meta has been fined £1.1 billion (€1.3 billion) by the Irish watchdog to date.
