Facebook has announced that they are going to stop ad targeting of users that are under the age of 18 years old on their platform.

In a new statement that they released, they said that advertisers will no longer be able to target people under 18 on its platforms based on their interests or their activity on other sites.

This was made public after a bunch of announcements made by the company on Tuesday this week.

What does this mean?

The change means that people who set ads on the platform will no longer be able to target users under 18 based on their interests or their activity on other websites.

So in short, advertisers will only be able to target users under 18 by age, gender, and location.

This also applies on Instagram.

Why Instagram?

In a blog post that was made by Instagram, they said that they were making the change because they had agreed with young advocates that young people might not be capable on making decisions when they are targeted.

What about the changes?

An official spokesperson of Facebook said that there will be no changes made to the user data that the company collects from its users.

Also, an update along with this one includes one where Instagram users under the age of 16 are going to have a private account once they join the platform.

Protecting Children

The best thing about this is update is that kids who join the platform in case they are under 16 will have a private account by default. This is done to stop unwanted messages from adults. Not only that, but they are also to receive get an option to switch to a public account.

Why sudden change?

Facebook’s approach to younger users has been constantly changing recently due to lawmakers and attorneys slamming the leaked plans of the company to launch a version of Instagram that would be only used by kids under the age of 13.

Earlier this year, 40 State Attorney Generals wrote to CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking him to ditch the idea.

On Tuesday this week, Instagram said that they are working on a experience that would be for tweens.

The idea is focused for the youth and it will provide parents a greater transparency and controls on what younger children who want to access Instagram are doing.

Facebook is not the first company that a company has rolled out kid versions for their Apps. One of the main ones includes YouTube Kids.

Age verification of children is a big issue on many social media platforms and websites on the internet. Also, once registered via a fake email, it becomes impossible to identify and remove under age users.

Facebook AI for Teens

Along with the update, Pavni Diwani, the head of youth products for Facebook, said that they are using artificial intelligence to improve their verification in order to remove underage accounts on their platform.

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