Meta Limits Advertisers To Access Facebook Youth User Data And Instagram

Starting February, advertisers will no longer be able to view data like the user's gender on Facebook and Instagram. (photo: dock. Meta)

JAKARTA - Meta pays full attention to its teenage users by tightening restrictions around the company's available data to target advertising.

Starting February, advertisers will no longer be able to view data such as the user's gender on Facebook and Instagram or the type of post they follow as a way to target ads for teenage users.

Under the new rules, only users' ages and locations will be used to display ads to them.

In addition, other new controls will also be introduced in March, where teenage users can enter into settings in both apps and choose to see less specific types of ads.

"We recognize that teens don't necessarily wake up like adults to make decisions about how their online data is used for advertising," Meta said in its official blog post, quoted Wednesday, January 11.

Meta's move follows a request by online security campaigners stating social media platforms need to do more to control the types of ads displayed to teenage users.

They also warn that inappropriate advertising could cause harm to as much offensive or abusive content as posted by others.

Meta has previously added limits that stop advertisers from targeting teens with ads based on their interests and activities.

The company said, as the Evening Standard reports, the latest update came in response to research on the matter, direct feedback from experts and global regulation.

The announcement of this new restriction comes at the same time as Meta rolling out a discrimination content prevention tool in ads, Variance Reduction System (VRS).

The technology also serves to increase equitable distribution of ads according to audience interests across Meta apps.

VRS can measure the actual reach of the audience according to the target for each ad, ensuring wider spread based on various audience factors, and should not lean towards certain cultural groups or be unfair.

Using machine learning, VRS will compare audience aggregate demographics with the demographics that marketers want to reach. Then change the value of advertising auctions to show them more often or more rarely to certain groups. Meta says VRS will continue to work during ad view.