Google and Meta accused of secretly targeting teens on YouTube

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Meta and Google have reportedly made a secret deal to target 13 to 17-year-olds with Instagram ads on YouTube, breaking the search giant's rules against advertising to children, according to the Financial Times.

According to Financial Times, the Instagram campaign "deliberately targeted a group of users labelled as 'unknown' in its advertising system".

It added that Google knew 'unknown' skewed towards under-18s and that documents seen by the publication suggested "steps were taken to ensure the true intent of the campaign was disguised."

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Checks by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE on Google Ads' help page revealed that the "unknown" demographic category refers to people whose age, gender, parental status or household income are identified and can allow advertisers to reach a "significantly wider audience" when selected.

However, data point such as app downloads and activity online reportedly allow Google to determine "with a high degree of confidence" that those in the "unknown" group included under-18 users, added Financial Times.

The pilot marketing programme was first launched in Canada between February and April, before being trialed in the US in May, according to Financial Times. It was reportedly done with Spark Foundry, a US subsidiary of French advertising giant Publicis.

Google has reportedly initiated an investigation into the allegations. Meanwhile, the project has reportedly been cancelled too.

When MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reached out, Google said it "prohibit ads being personalized to people under 18, period. These policies go well beyond what is required and are supported by technical safeguards. We've confirmed that these safeguards worked properly here. We'll also be taking additional action to reinforce with sales representatives that they must not help advertisers or agencies run campaigns attempting to work around our policies.”

Meta, on the other hand, reportedly said that it has been open about marketing its apps to young people as a place for them to connect with friends, find community and discover their interests, reported Financial Times.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Meta for more information.

This news comes after a US judge ruled that Google has violated antitrust law, spending billions of dollars to create an illegal monopoly and become the world's default search engine.

In his 277-paged ruling, judge Amit Mehta said that "Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly." This is especially since Google controls about 90% of the online search market and 95% on smartphones.

Google was also accused of paying other companies such as Apple and Samsung to have Google automatically handle search queries on their smartphones and web browsers.

In the same ruling, Mehta noted that Google had paid US$26.3 billion in 2021 to ensure that its search engine is the default on smartphones and browsers, and to keep its dominant market share.

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