Calling on the government to ban surveillance advertising to under 18s
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.
Young campaigner
Global Action Plan’s vision is of a safe, well regulated, low carbon online environment. We have been campaigning about online safety for children for years.
We created a powerful coalition of lawyers; academics; clinicians; human rights; privacy and children's rights advocates; and environmental groups. All demanded that big tech companies turn off surveillance advertising to under 18s.
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 called for the government to ban surveillance advertising to under 18s.
820m
profiles of children are auctioned every day in order to sell advertising
Fighting back against toxic content
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 exposed Meta’s duplicity, restricting advertisers’ ability to target teens while quietly using their internal algorithms to ‘optimise’ kids’ ads. We also uncovered dangerous ‘trap ads’ on YouTube that lure pre-schoolers to violent video games.
We supported young campaigners with their creation of the Stop Following Me Campaign, which called on MPs and online retailers to end advertising to under 18s. This work was funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the campaign film was made by agency Nice & Serious, who brought the young campaigners’ brief to life.
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 and met James Morris MP to discuss their campaign asks.
I-Spy: the billion-dollar business of surveillance advertising to kids
YouTube allows deceptive ‘trap ads’ to appear alongside trusted kids content like Peppa Pig and Barbie videos
This video, created through our work with young people, demonstrates how insidious targeted surveillance can be, how it impacts our spending habits and our wellbeing
With thanks to all our partners
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