Stop Following Me
Young people are being put under increasing pressure by advertisers and online platforms to over-consume.
This toxic culture is harming the environment through over-production, creating dangerous air pollution and invading young people’s privacy through surveillance advertising.
- Global Action Plan has worked with a group of young campaigners in schools between 2022-2024 to build a youth led campaign to end surveillance advertising to kids.
- The group created their own demands, film, visuals, and letters to MPs and retailers, exposing manipulative algorithms that track and pressure young people into overconsumption.
- They contacted 54 MPs, securing meetings and an invitation to speak at the Select Committee on Mental Health.
- Campaigners began a dialogue with brands like Air Up and Ikea, and its film was shown to 90 global brands at the World Federation of Advertisers’ 2024 conference.
- 80% of the young people we worked with gained knowledge on how to campaign (up from 21%), and 60% felt confident doing so (up from 31%).
“The experience has taught me lots about how to address issues that I care about, including who to speak to, and actions that should be taken.”
Young creator from the ‘Stop Following Me’ campaign (2024)
Everything on this page has been created by the young people Global Action Plan has been working with.
We are a group of young campaigners, aged 14-16. We want advertisers to stop following us when we spend time online. We want online retailers and the UK government to act to protect us and end surveillance advertising to kids. Every time we go online we feel pressured to buy stuff that we don't want or need. We’re worried about the negative impacts of this excessive pressure to consume - on young people now - and on future generations. It is harming our mental and physical health, invading our privacy, destroying nature, and contributing to climate change.
Young people are relentlessly pressured to buy, buy, buy when we spend time online. The tactics used to pressure us are getting worse – creepy ‘surveillance’ advertising invades our privacy and is harming our mental health.
We are being followed around the internet with adverts tailored to us, based on our personal information. There is no limit to the amount of adverts we are exposed to online. We believe targeted advertising to children is manipulative and unethical and we want it to stop.
Many young people we spoke to, said this constant surveillance made them feel unsafe online, likening the experience to having a ‘real life stalker’. Others told us it made them feel hopeless and helpless because they couldn’t live up to the expectations shown by adverts online and they can’t make them stop. Lots of the young people reported feeling pressured to purchase unnecessary items. They told us it makes them feel anxious that they “won’t fit in” if they don’t have the right stuff, but also guilty when they buy too much.
We don’t want to experience this and we don’t want other young people to experience this in the future.
We are worried about our futures. The production of all of this 'stuff' is causing huge harms to the environment.
We are worried, angry, and scared about the devastating impacts that the overuse of resources is having on the planet. It is causing land, air, and water pollution and the extinction of wildlife. Yet we are bombarded with messages everyday telling us to buy more.
Young people we spoke to told us they feel powerless over these impacts to the planet. It causes them great anxiety and they are deeply concerned about how this will impact their futures.
The boom in online shopping has led to more delivery vehicles on our roads and to more harmful gases and particles in the air we breathe.
We are concerned about the impacts on our own health and wellbeing, the damage it causes to the environment, and the negative impacts on future generations.
Young people we spoke to told us that they are particularly worried about how children are affected by air pollution as they are more vulnerable to its harmful impacts. They also told us they feel powerless to change it.
Online retailers we want you to:
Stop using surveillance advertising to under 18’s and marketing/advertising tactics that encourage impulse purchasing (e.g. Buy Now Get Next Day). This would:
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Protect precious resources from being over-used, reducing the devastating harms this causes to nature.
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Protect young peoples’ mental health – reducing their feelings of anxiety or isolation if they can’t buy the latest things and stop them feeling pressured to buy things they don’t want or need.
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Improve the physical health of young people by protecting them from the harmful impacts of air pollution from unnecessary vehicles on the road.
UK government we want you to:
Ban surveillance advertising to under 18's. This would:
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Reduce the pressure placed on children across the UK to buy impulse purchase items that they don’t want or need.
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Reduce young people’s exposure to the emotional manipulation and stereotypes used by adverts to make children believe that they need products to fit in, be liked, or look a certain way.
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Help prevent the anxiety, depression, self-harm and eating disorders or body dysmorphia that young people are experiencing.
Online retailers and the UK government – you have the power to stop the toxic pressure on us to buy when we spend time online, starting today. We know that these changes are possible. On behalf of the hundreds of young people who we’ve spoken to, we urge you to help make these changes a reality. We can’t wait to see a healthier and more sustainable future.
Take action and spread the word
We need governments and retailers to take us seriously. There are lots of things we can do together to make more people listen to our call for change.
Start a conversation with your friends and family about surveillance advertising. You could show them the campaign film too.
Write a letter to your MP, or to a retailer that you would like to see change. You can see our letters to retailers, along with guidance on how to write to your MP below.
If you're in school, speak to your teacher/ your headteacher to find a way to share this information with the wider school community e.g. in newsletters, in a school assembly or by asking parents to support the campaign.
If you've left school, raise awareness of the need to ban surveillance advertising by liking and sharing our campaign assets with your networks or on social media. We've got graphics that you can use to help tell the story.
If you’re from an organisation campaigning on this issue, sign up to the Global Action Plan newsletter.
Student letters to MPs and retailers
During the workshops for this project, students wanted to make their voices heard. They wrote letters to MPs and retailers calling for an end to surveillance advertising that tracks their behaviours across the internet, and gets them to spend more money on things they don't need.
Join our campaign and write a letter to your own MP:
Graphics and text for you to use
Students designed social media graphics and posts to help others support their campaign. You can click on the images to get full size versions to download, and there's suggested text under each for you to use in newsletters, emails, or to give you prompts when talking to friends and family.
Want to share by email or in a newsletter? Try this suggested text (click to reveal).
Young people want advertisers to stop following them when they spend time online. The harmful practice of surveillance advertising is putting them under increasing pressure to over-consume – which is harming their mental and physical health, as well as contributing to climate change.
Over the past two years, environmental charity Global Action Plan has been working with 14-16-year-old campaigners across the UK to identify the ways in which the Big Tech business model hurts them and the planet.The young campaigners have gone on to build a campaign – Stop Following Me – which calls for a ban on surveillance advertising to under 18s and the end of marketing tactics which encourage impulse purchasing. The campaign includes a youth statement of demands, a film, and a series of actions enabling young people and organisations campaigning in this space to call for change, including social media posts and template letters to MPs – all created by the young campaigners themselves.
Please take action to support the young people’s campaign by visiting globalactionplan.org.uk/stop
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On average, advertising tech companies hold 72 million data points on a child by the time they turn 13. As youth campaigners, we feel violated and betrayed by companies using aggressive advertising to manipulate us for the sake of profit. We want it to stop. If you support our call, please share this post to help amplify our message 📢
The Stop Following Me youth campaign is supported by Global Action Plan. Find out more ↓
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You wouldn’t follow me in real life, so why do you think it’s okay to follow me online? 🔭
As young people we are being targeted by surveillance advertising that manipulates us into buying things we don’t want or need, harming both the planet and our wellbeing. Many 14-year-olds see up to 1,260 adverts every day on social media alone!
Watch our film to find out how surveillance advertising is harming young people↓
https://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/stop
If you agree that surveillance advertising should be banned for under 18s, please share this post to help amplify our message 📢
The Stop Following Me youth campaign is supported by Global Action Plan.
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The materialistic values expressed and reinforced in adverts are damaging to children’s wellbeing and the environment. As youth campaigners from secondary schools across the UK, we are deeply concerned about the future of our planet and the increasing harm that surveillance advertising is causing for young people. We don’t want to feel pressured to buy stuff that we don’t want or need when we spend time online. Offers and discounts manipulate and target us, making us feel followed and watched. If you want to stop surveillance advertising, share this post to help amplify our message 📢
The Stop Following Me youth campaign is supported by Global Action Plan. Find out more ↓
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Do you ever feel as if you are being watched online? 👁
As youth campaigners, we are concerned that invasive and manipulative online adverts are tracking our every move, putting pressure on young people to impulsively buy things they don’t want or need. Young people deserve their privacy. We shouldn’t have to feel creeped out by companies watching and listening to what we do or say. If you agree, share this post to amplify our message 📢
The Stop Following Me youth campaign is supported by Global Action Plan. Find out more ↓
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As young people our mental health is affected by increasing pressures to buy, buy, buy 💰 This may result in the development of eating disorders, depression or self-harming behaviour. We need to be protected by the banning of surveillance advertising and setting a limit on advertising to under-18s 👧 If you agree, share this post to help amplify our message 📢
The Stop Following Me youth campaign is supported by Global Action Plan. Find out more ↓
https://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/stop
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"I don’t want to have my life choices decided by ads, and everything I see decided by my phone” - Youth Campaigner 📱
Powerful companies are ruining young people’s mental health for profit. 90% of 11–21-year-old girls in the UK think there should be stricter rules to stop advertisers bombarding young women with weight loss or ‘appearance-improving’ adverts online. Are your products more important than young people’s futures? If you want to see an end to surveillance advertising, share this post now to help amplify our message 📢
The Stop Following Me youth campaign is supported by Global Action Plan.