Google and Facebook under pressure to ban children’s ads

Tech companies have been urged to cease promoting to under-18s in an open letter signed by MPs, lecturers and kids’s-rights advocates.

Behavioural promoting not solely undermines privateness however places “vulnerable” children below unfair advertising and marketing stress, the letter says.

It’s addressed to Google, Amazon, Apple, Fb and Microsoft.

In a separate transfer Google-owned YouTube is accused of unlawfully mining knowledge from 5 million under-13s within the UK.

European knowledge safety legal guidelines forbid the mining of information of younger youngsters.

“The truth that ad-tech corporations maintain 72 million knowledge factors on a baby by the point they flip 13 exhibits the extent of disregard for these legal guidelines, and the extraordinary surveillance to which youngsters are subjected,” the letter reads.

“There isn’t any justification for focusing on youngsters with personalised adverts any greater than there’s for focusing on 12-year-olds.

“You, probably the most highly effective corporations on the web, have a duty to guard your customers.”

Among the many 23 signatories are MP Caroline Lucas and scientific psychologist Dr Elly Hanson. Associates of the Earth can be named on the letter.

It was co-ordinated by World Motion Plan, which argues that internet marketing accelerates consumerism, and provides pointless stress to the planet.

All of the companies concerned have been requested to remark however none has but responded.

Individually, privateness advocate Duncan McCann is suing Google on behalf of 5 million British youngsters, claiming it broke privateness legal guidelines by monitoring youngsters on-line, in breach of each UK and European data-protection legal guidelines.

The case, lodged with the UK Excessive Courtroom in July, will likely be strongly contested by YouTube which is able to argue its platform isn’t for kids aged below 13.

Mr McCann, who has three youngsters below that age, believes damages of between £100 and £500 may very well be payable to youngsters who’re discovered to have had their knowledge breached.