Instagram ads for teens can no longer be based on gender

Meta will add new restrictions on the use of ads on Facebook and Instagram aimed at teenagers. These advertisements can no longer be based on gender. This concerns users under the age of sixteen.

Meta comes with two new measures which will come into effect from next month. In addition to the gender restriction, following certain posts or pages and placing likes will no longer influence which advertisements teenagers are served on the platforms.

According to Meta, age and location are the only information about a teenager that is used to show advertisements. According to the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, these two elements are important to serve teens ads that are age-appropriate and include products and services that are available where they live. It is therefore not possible to completely disable advertisements for this group.

Starting in March, teens will have more ways to control the types of ads they see. For example, if someone wants to see fewer advertisements about a certain genre or a certain TV show, it will be possible to indicate this. It is also still possible to hide certain or all advertisements from a specific advertiser.

Last year, Meta started enabling certain privacy settings by default for new Facebook users under the age of sixteen. The settings allow only friends of teens to see their friends list, followed pages, and posts they’re tagged in. The standard also limits who is allowed to respond to public posts by a new user under the age of sixteen. Accounts of users under the age of sixteen have been protected by default since 2021 and adults can no longer simply send private messages to teenagers.