From February, companies wishing to advertise for minors on these platforms will only have access to their age and to their location, Meta announced.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
Meta has announced new measures to its youngest users. , the parent company of Instagram and Facebook social networks, regularly accused of harming the mental health of adolescents, decided to no longer allow advertisers to target them according to their kind.
From February, companies wishing to advertise for minors on these platforms will only have access to their age and location, to ensure that the content of the announcements Either appropriate and useful, explains Meta. The company led by Mark Zuckerberg, which has not already allowed adolescent history since the summer of 2021 to know other sites, has also decided to extend this limitation to its own platforms. This amounts to “deleting the possibility for advertisers to target adolescents according to their interests and activities,” says Meta.
The group also plans to let people under 18 more easily mention when they wish to receive fewer advertisements on certain subjects, as a kind of TV series or a specific sport.
mental health at Heart of concerns
American elected officials and child protection associations criticize particularly popular applications among young people, such as Instagram but also Snapchat, YouTube or Tiktok, for having harmful effects on its youngest users.
The accusations took a new dimension in the fall of 2021 on the occasion of the publication of the “Facebook Files”, when the whistleblower and ex-employee of Facebook Frances Haugen leaned internal documents showing that The leaders of the platform were aware of certain risks for minors. More recently, in December, a report from the online hatred fighting center (CCDH), in the United States, supported the responsibility of the Tiktok algorithm. The study demonstrated how harmful content, including in particular videos relating to self -control and food disorders, were recommended for its young users.
Companies have been trying to give wages on the protection of adolescents. Contacted by the Agency France-Presse (AFP), Meta assured having “developed more than thirty tools to support adolescents and families, including supervision tools that allow parents to limit the time that their adolescents spend on Instagram , and an age verification technology that helps adolescents live experiences adapted to their age, “according to Antigone Davis, security manager.
Google, owner of YouTube, said it “invested a lot in the creation of safe experiences for children on our platforms”, and “introduces solid protections and special features to give priority to Their well-being, “said José Castañeda, a spokesperson. For its part, Tiktok has deployed features in recent months and educational content for younger people , with the objective for example to make them aware of the dangerousness of online challenges or the question screen time.
Insufficient efforts according to some: officials of public schools in Seattle in the United States, thus filed a complaint against several social networks on Friday accusing them of “attacks” to the mental health of minors. “The increase in suicides, attempted suicide and visits to emergencies related to mental health is not a coincidence. (…) This crisis was already getting worse before the pandemic and research identified social networks as playing a role major in the appearance of mental health problems in young people, “they write in their complaint.