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Facebook Lets Advertisers Target Insecure Teens, Says Report (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Leaked documents from Facebook's team in Australia allegedly show the social giant's ability to help advertisers target teens who feel "worthless." The documents, first revealed by The Australian, say Facebook can spot when teens "need a confidence boost." The documents reportedly get even more specific, saying Facebook's algorithm can pinpoint when teens feel "useless," "stressed," "failure," "silly," "stupid," "worthless" and "defeated." Using Facebook's tools as well as image recognition, advertisers would be able to find teens in some of their lowest moments -- and then target ads to them. The leaked documents also detailed how advertisers could use Facebook's algorithms to find teens who were interested in "working out and losing weight" and promote health products, according to The Australian. Facebook's team in Australia was reportedly looking to capitalize on 6.4 million teens who use the social network in their region.
any teens using facebook are worthless
Tech site slashdot rendered in 1990's style due to "the cloud" hosting service using a test certificate. Oh the irony:
a.fsdn.com uses an invalid security certificate.
The certificate is only valid for *.test.edgekey.net
Lock them in jail and throw away the key.
The next headline will be "Target Advertising Causes Teen Bulimia Epidemic".
Disable broadcast of your teen's SSID. Removing wifi access to your teen altogether provides even stronger security.
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
so facebook helps its consumers with optimizing their usage of its product... why is this an issue?
That way counseling and help groups like boystown hotline can be exposed to the right group of people.
If the product removes the teens problem, then it's actually solving problems, unlike fictional solutions like everyone is beautiful, just be yourself.
Or do they have a measure of just how insecure or damaged a person is? (That probably requires many axis)
They probably use celebrities as canonical examples;
How Damaged on a scale of 0 to 1.0 Lindsay Lohans :-)
How much drugs abused on a scale of 0 to 1.0 Keith Richards (anything over 0.3 on that scale would kill the average human)
etc...
Considerable amusement awaits when defining other measures :-)
Ian Ameline
Why would you want to sell anything to any teen? None of them have any money!
I mean, these people are in the advertising business, it does not get much more exploitative than that. The only surprise (maybe) is that they were stupid enough to get caught.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
? I thought it was clear that this is how Facebook makes money. Too late to stop it now.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
"Sturdy Rope, guaranteed to not break!" advertised to teens that are feeling depressed, along with 'low fat yogurt' ads just in case they decide NOT to kill themselves.
"you can do anything and be anything in life". No you can't. It is the worst lie to tell a child.
Because there's no chance that advertisers, paragons of virtue that they are, would target teenagers with a the same deluge of spam advertisments for weight loss, penis enlargement and dating sites that they've been drowning the internet with for the last two decades?
Which is all you need to know to know that your children should not be anywhere near it!
Corporatism != Free Market
Because there's no chance that advertisers, paragons of virtue that they are, would target teenagers with a the same deluge of spam
The whole point of targeted advertising is to deliver ads that the recipient is actually interested in. That is pretty much the opposite of "spamming". The reality of social media is that it is ad supported, and if you are going to be seeing ads anyway, targeted ads are better than the alternative.
And the fuckers (facebook as well as the advertisers) whine about adblock, and are going to whine even louder when chrome will include one by default... Someone should sue their asses to release what companys have used that kind of targeting. Let them burn...
Certainly some products don't solve the problem they are designed to address, at least not long term. Some ads arw obviously shams. Others most certainly do solve the problem. Obvious example - cars actually solve transportation needs.
Here we are talking about *feelings*. Someone wants to *feel* better. Well that's often pretty easy, at least in the short term. Just yesterday a friend was feeling fat and ugly. She bought something at Victoria's Secret which helped her feel beautiful and attractive. Just with Victoria's Secret alone witnessed that at least three different times. She's feeling unattractive, she gets something she likes from VS, then she feels attractive, then she shows me how attractive she is in the new thing she bought.
So it does solve the problem of feeling ugly and unattractive. At least short term. It can also start a longer-term chain reaction. She feels attractive in the new camisole, she shows him. He tells her she looks good, and *shows* her that she is sexy. Now she feels even more attractive. She wants more, so she does something else - maybe with whipped cream. He finds that attractive amd expresses his appreciation for her ... the cycle continues.
And then there are of course the scams too.
Can it tell which ones are feeling horny? Just asking.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The whole point of targeted advertising is to deliver ads that the recipient is actually interested in. That is pretty much the opposite of "spamming". The reality of social media is that it is ad supported, and if you are going to be seeing ads anyway, targeted ads are better than the alternative.
The whole point of targeted advertising is to deliver ads to a "receptive" audience. It has absolutely nothing to do with things you're interested in. It's can we close a sale with this person. Teens feeling isolated and left out will be much more eager for our "Hi, mY name iS alexandria, Me just cum across your facebook page and think we common interests have. Cum visit me at https://xxx.pay.me.ru/"
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
That's what I call predatory advertising.
I'm glad I'm not part of that stupid facebook abuse.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Cum visit me at https://xxx.pay.me.ru/"
Hey, that link doesn't work.
...when you help foster critical thinking and mature attitudes in teens you won't need to care what specific greedy corporation or social spying network came up with.
It's up to parents to counteract this crap. Women have consumed "fashion" magazines for decades and it has mostly caused them to doubt their own worth, looks etc. Men think they are immune but these days they are sculpting their eyebrows and trying to get a sixpack.
Why? because advertisers know that a chimp without a stick and a can wants to be like that "successful" chimp with a stick and a can. Some ads sell success but others are more nefarious, they sell fear. "If you have blood when you brush you might have gum disease" *cue woman with missing teeth*
Most adults end up buying shit they don't need because they cannot ignore ads. So teens and younger children are obviously less equipped to deal with any of it.
Parents have to campaign against all ads targeting very young children and guidelines for ads targeting teens and young adults. This of course is the long hard route...easier is to cut crap out of your kids life and help them deal with the crap that's there.
The last thing you want is your little girl secretly throwing up all her meals because of some fucking air brushed magazine bullshit and "thinspiration" sites or your boy getting roids cause he thinks a six pack is his life's mission. -or worse, finding out they have developed a serious drug habit...except how will you know if you do not get involved actively and find out everything your kid is up to? Trust them but verify.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
What the fuck do you think defines a receptive audience if not things they are interested in?
Go ahead. I'll wait.
Refuses to put effort into social skills, gets nowhere. Film at eleven.
I love these articles like this is something new. Hello? Anyone remember the 80's and the advertising around sugary breakfast cereals? Cartoon characters were the main vehicle there. Buzz Bee Cheerios, Toucan Sam, Diggum the Frog. Oh and don't forget the hero of them all busting down that school brick wall to get kids to drink sugar water, KOOLAID man!
American advertising is one of the most disgusting things on the planet. Someone who has serious brand marketing tell these people. Brands create relationships with kids because statistics show that when you get them young, they will be more likely to be lifelong loyal to your brand. The only way to stop this nonsense is to teach our kids to developer critical thinking skills and not to be easily manipulated by psychology using their emotions. When you don't give your power away and start thinking for yourself, they have NO POWER OVER YOU. Parents need to level up to be able to educate kids effectively about this.
We'll make great pets
And by the way, this whole shaming people for not buying the right brand of this and that, it's a form of gas-lighting. Fuck those people.
We'll make great pets
Lock them in jail and throw away the key.
Look, you've fallen for a classic Idiot Story. Predicting which teens feel worthless, etc. is easy. Just pick all of them, and about 90% of the time you'll be right.
Now, if they could reliably predict teens who are NOT feeling worthless (etc.), and in particular at the specific point in time when they aren't feeling like every other teen always feels, THAT would be a notable accomplishment.
Just like sexual predators do!!!
An algorithm that only needs to check for any age under 21 is hardly groundbreaking.
What he meant to say but couldn't phrase is predatory marketing. It's what all marketers want to have. An emotional action to break the consumer into needing the advertised product. Loan sharks and affiliate markerters aren't the only thing using vulnerable people to sell to.
Zuckerberg is a creep of unfathomably low moral standards. This merely adds to the ever-growing trash-heap of evidence. A reminder to use Facebook only if you support Madison Avenue exploiting children.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701127/quotes?item=qt0290333
bickerdyke
What the fuck do you think defines a receptive audience if not things they are interested in?
Go ahead. I'll wait.
Receptive audience? Brain washed morons with an attention span of 1-5 seconds, taught from birth to buy, buy, buy! all that's advertised, regardless of their needs. AKA USians and a large percent of other so called 1st world countries.
In this case, Facebook plus the advertisers are using the same techniques as a typical child sex offender, just a different sense of fucking.
The whole point of advertising is to deliver ads that will convince the recipient (for better or worse) to hand over money.
One time honored technique among the sleezier advertisers is to attack the ego. Convince the person they are somehow defective and failing, then throw them a 'lifeline' that promises to make them somehow socially acceptable. These are the ones who need to find people who feel insecure.