End Surveillance Advertising to Kids
Children are bombarded with advertising online. Powerful algorithms draw on a wealth of harvested data about habits and preferences to keep children hooked, recommending endless addictive content and hounding them with manipulative ads. There is no moral justification for spying on children for profit. Unlike television, there are no rules limiting the number of adverts shown to kids online. It’s time there were. That’s why our End Surveillance Advertising to Kids campaign calls for the government to ban surveillance advertising to under 18s.
Tech giants must do the right thing
We're demanding that websites popular with children should:
Comply with the existing law and stop sending under 13s personalised ads
Turn off surveillance ads for under 18s
Cap all ads to 10% of social media content.
How we're fighting back against toxic content
We have created a powerful coalition of lawyers; academics; clinicians; human rights; privacy and children's rights advocates; and environmental groups. All are demanding that big tech companies turn off surveillance advertising to under 18s.
In May 2021, we published I-Spy: the billion-dollar business of surveillance advertising to kids, based on new research by the New Economics Foundation. This provided a robust policy platform for our campaign. We have exposed Meta’s duplicity which restricts advertisers’ ability to target teens while quietly using their internal algorithms to ‘optimise’ kids’ ads. We have also uncovered dangerous ‘trap ads’ on YouTube that lure pre-schoolers to violent video games.
820 milliion digital profiles of UK children are auctioned every day in order to sell ads.
Next steps: aiming for a full ban
While platforms like YouTube and Facebook have made major changes to their kids’ policies since our campaign began, we are pressing for stronger regulation and a full ban on surveillance advertising. Our work has ensured that the harms are recognised and common ground is found by businesses and NGOs, and the campaign has been featured in the BBC, Financial Times, Daily Mail and The Guardian. Thanks to funding from Luminate, we’re now bringing the climate movement to the fight to fix Big Tech. We’re also working with leading advertisers and brands, such as Dove, to ensure that the regulations that protect young people from online harms are standardised and enforced.
We're also working with young people, who have developed their own Youth Statement of Demands to MPs and retailers.
Good for
Our lives: Research has shown that reinforcing materialistic values and goals has a negative impact on our wellbeing. Curbing advertising, therefore, helps to promote healthier and happier lives.
Our planet: Curbing advertising will help to keep us from consuming goods we don't need and perpetuating a throwaway culture.