Facebook is approving smocking and alcohol products in their advertisements, a report says. It also includes gambling and extreme weight loss ads, which are now being shown to teenagers on Facebook.
The research was conducted by Reset Australia, which created a Facebook page to test out if Facebook authorizes sensitive ads for underage audiences.
This means teenagers on Facebook often see sensitive advertisements, click on them, or may end up exploring more about what they shouldn’t.
Since Facebook offers a cheaper rate of advertising which is a $1 minimum budget, the majority of businesses opt for their advertising platform. Comparing it with Bing Ads and Google Ads is comparatively expensive and needs more expertise to run the ads. While on Facebook, you can just run ads within two clicks.
The research results show 52,000 teenage children are actively looking for alcohol under the cocktail recipe ads. Vape pens are showing a greater impact on teenagers as over 1,000 are interested in such ads.
The gambling category is also rising in the teenage category. The majority of the ads in the gambling section have a text containing “Win XYZ Amount on Betting.”