In the US, social networks collectively amassed more than $11 billion from advertising aimed at minors last year alone.
Minors are the weakest link in that phenomenal income generating machine that is social networks, but even so the large 2.0 platforms have no desire to earn huge amounts of money at their expense. According to a recent study from the T.H. School of Public Health. Chan of Harvard University, social networks collectively amassed more than $11 billion in the United States from advertising aimed at minors last year alone.
From the disturbing conclusions of the report, we infer the need to peremptorily apply government regulations to social networks to prevent them from profiting from children, since attempts to make them self-regulate have failed miserably to date, the authors of the report emphasize. the investigation.
According to the authors of the study, such regulations, conveniently amalgamated with greater transparency on the part of large platforms, could help mitigate the damage to the mental health of minors and potentially tackle harmful advertising practices that target children. and adolescents.
To calculate the income that social networks bring into their coffers with money from advertising, researchers estimated the number of users under 18 years of age that there were in 2022 on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube based on population data from the United States Census and information managed by Common Sense Media and Pew Research. And then they also used data from the market research company Insider Intelligence and Qustodio, a parental control app, to estimate the advertising revenue received by 2.0 platforms in 2022 and the time spent by minors on each of them. those platforms. With all this data, the authors of the report created a simulation model to estimate the income generated by advertising directed at minors on social networks.
Both researchers and legislators have been focusing on the harmful effects of social networks on the other side of the pond, whose algorithms can lead children to engage in excessive use of these platforms. In fact, in recent months, United States states such as Utah and New York have approved legislation especially focused on reducing the use of social networks among minors to safeguard their mental health.
Additionally, Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, has been sued by dozens of states overseas for allegedly contributing to an acute mental health crisis among children and adolescents.
The authors of the report accuse social networks of failing miserably when it comes to self-regulation
“Although social networks claim they can self-regulate their practices to reduce the harm inflicted on young people, they have to be genuinely willing to do so, and our study suggests that they enjoy abundant financial incentives to continue delaying the implementation of measures to protect children,” emphasizes Bryn Austin, professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard University and co-author of the study.
It should be noted that the social networks pilloried in their report by Harvard University do not reveal the money they generate specifically at the expense of minors.
Social networks are not the only ones that make money from advertising specifically aimed at children. Online channels, television and even schools have also been accused on multiple occasions of launching advertising campaigns focusing on children. However, on social media, advertising directed at minors is particularly insidious because the border between commercial content and organic content is sometimes extraordinarily blurry.
Already in 2020, a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics warned that children “were particularly vulnerable to the persuasive effects of advertising due to their still immature skills of critical thinking and impulse inhibition.”
“School-age children and adolescents can identify advertising, but they are often unable to resist it when it is embedded in trusted social networks, encouraged by influencers or placed next to personalized content,” the report highlights.
As concerns grow over the impact of social media on children’s mental health, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) earlier this month proposed changes to a law to regulate how online companies can track children’s online activities and confront them with personalized advertising. The FTC’s proposed changes include disabling advertising aimed at children under 13 on social media by default and limiting push notifications.
According to the Harvard University report, YouTube is the 2.0 platform that generates the most advertising revenue at the expense of children under 12 years of age ($959.1 million), followed by Instagram (801.1 million) and Facebook ( 137.2 million).
Instagram is, for its part, the social network that receives the most money from advertising into its coffers thanks to users between 13 and 17 years old ($4 billion). And they follow Instagram in terms of revenue volume, TikTok (2 billion) and YouTube (1.2 billion).
For its part, the platform that generates the highest proportion of advertising revenue through users under 18 years of age is Snapchat (41%), followed by TikTok (35%), YouTube (27%) and Instagram (16%).
