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The Facebook Ads Teens Aren't Supposed To See
schwit1 writes in with this story about Facbook's questionable ads including webcam modeling and diet drugs. "Sophie Bean, 14, of Sequim, Wash., said she was thought she was 'liking' a Facebook ad related to fashion modeling. Instead, it promoted a Facebook page that recruited adult webcam models. 'I just thought it was for modeling, and I'm interested in that, and I thought it would help me out,' Sophie said. Sophie wasn't the only teen connecting with the page, which Facebook statistics show is most popular with users 13 to 17. Clicking on it didn't pull the teens into nude webcam modeling, but did mean they would receive the page's updates and could be mentioned in future versions of the ad."
This clearly demonstrates that "you" are the product!
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
[...] just like we teach them reading, writing, math, history, civil rights, and balancing a budget.
Actually, I don't believe that we tend to teach them any of those things either.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
There's nothing wrong with "erotica"
Waldorf: "There's nothing like a good erotic webcam show."
Statler: "And that was nothing like a good erotic webcam show!"
Wow... I understand she's only 14 and all, but we really need to start making sure kids understand how the internet works
I'm not going to argue against this because it is clearly a good idea to teach your children how to take care of themselves and avoid trouble.
But I do feel that the way the laws regarding advertising like this isn't applied in a way that is equal to everyone.
If a large company were to manually target a 14 year old for nude modelling that would be considered to be a large criminal network and highly illegal.
If an individual were to manually target a 14 year old for nude modelling he/she would be considered a pedophile.
If an individual were through automation targeting a 14 year old for nude modelling it could be taken into consideration that it wasn't intentional but even if he/she isn't considered a pedophile he/she will never get a proper work again and will have a hard time if moving to a community with children in it.
Why is it that it is suddenly OK just because it is an automated service from a large company. Does responsibility go out the window just because you let a computer do it instead of doing it manually?
For industrial machinery the developer is to some extent responsible if people get hurt, that is one reason development of them is expensive.
I feel that it is a bit strange that one can avoid the law by automating a task. It might not be possible to prove intention but Facebook has the resources to at least try to figure out that this kind of thing could happen and take precautions to prevent it.
If they can't reasonably prevent certain ads to be shown for minors then they could at least avoid selling advertising space to services that isn't suitable for many of their users.
Yes, it will cut into their profits. Good, not everything should be profitable.
I have AdBlock set to block a couple of facebook domains wholesale ... that sped up my browser quite noticeably.