Meta has unveiled heightened restrictions around the data available to advertisers to target teenage users on its platforms, Facebook and Instagram.
In a blog post, Meta said: “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.”
From February, Meta will remove gender as an option for advertisers to reach teens, and their engagement on their apps will not inform the types of ads teen users will see.
The only data about a teen user that will be available will be their age and location.
Meta explained: “Age and location help us continue to ensure teens see ads that are meant for their age and products and services available where they live.”
In addition to the restrictions, from March teens will have more control over managing the types of ads they see on Facebook and Instagram with a new expansion to Ad Topic Controls.
“Teens will be able to go to their Ad Preferences within Settings on both apps, and choose See Less or No Preference to further control the types of ads they see,” the tech giant explained.
Meta said that its advertising standards prohibit ads about restricted topics – such as alcohol, financial products and weight loss products and services – shown to people under 18 and older in certain countries.
But the parent company to Facebook and Instagram noted that some teens may want to see fewer ads of things they are not interested in and can make further decisions to hide any or all ads from a specific advertiser.
“The topics we already restrict in our policies will be defaulted to See Less, so that teens can’t choose to opt into content that may not be age-appropriate,” they said.