Google collaborated with Meta to launch ads targeting young teens, despite violating Google’s own regulations, as reported by the Financial Times. Documents reveal Google’s involvement in a marketing project promoting Instagram to YouTube users aged 13 to 17, a demographic previously protected from age-based ad targeting by Google. Unable to directly target this age group, Google instead focused on a category labeled as “unknown,” which was proposed to Meta by Google staff due to a high number of underage users within this group. The Information reports this practice as violating Google’s policy against proxy targeting. The marketing initiative, executed in partnership with media agency Spark Foundry, began in Canada and expanded to the US before Google terminated the project in response to inquiries from the Times. Google confirmed their prohibition of personalized ads for under-18 individuals but did not explicitly admit to exploiting the loophole or enforce stricter policies on circumventing advertising rules.
