They Want Your Kids: Google Sales Reps Helped Advertisers Target Minors Despite Ban

Google sales representatives have been accused of providing ad buyers with tips on how to target teenage users, despite the company’s policy prohibiting targeted advertising to users under the age of 18, according to a report from Adweek.

According to a recent report by Adweek, three ad buyers have claimed that Google sales representatives suggested targeting teens through the company’s “unknown” user category, which includes users whose age, gender, parental status, or household income is not known to Google. The buyers also shared written documents were reviewed by Adweek, supporting their claims.

Google’s official policy strictly prohibits ad targeting based on the age, gender, or interests of individuals under 18. However, this is not the first time the company has been accused of helping ad buyers target teens through the use of its unknown user category. The Financial Times recently reported on a similar situation.

As Breitbart News previously reported:

According to documents reviewed by the Financial Times and insider sources, Google worked with Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta on an advertising campaign that deliberately targeted a group of YouTube users labeled as “unknown” in its advertising system, which the company knew skewed towards under-18s. The project disregarded Google’s policies that prohibit personalizing and targeting ads to minors, including serving ads based on demographics and circumventing its own guidelines.

The collaboration between the two companies, who are typically fierce competitors as the world’s largest online advertising platforms, began late last year as Google sought to boost its advertising earnings and Meta scrambled to retain younger users’ attention against fast-growing rivals like TikTok. The project was developed by Spark Foundry, a U.S. subsidiary of French advertising giant Publicis, and was piloted in Canada between February and April this year before being trialed in the U.S. in May.

In response to the allegations, Google spokesperson Jacel Booth stated, “We strictly prohibit ads being personalized to people under 18—full stop. Our policies are reinforced with technical protections, which continue to work properly.” Booth also mentioned that Google would take “additional action with sales representatives to reinforce that they must not help agencies or advertisers attempt to circumvent our policies.”

The reported behavior could potentially raise concerns under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which prohibits platforms from collecting personal information on children under 13 without parental consent. An updated version of the law, which has passed the Senate and awaits a House vote, would ban targeted advertising to individuals under 17.

One of the unnamed agency buyers quoted in the Adweek article expressed shock at how explicitly a Google representative allegedly suggested including the unknown category for a client’s media buy on YouTube, as teens may be included in that group. Another buyer at a brand told Adweek that Google representatives had reached out to suggest targeting users over 16 who may have disposable income, via the unknown category.

A third buyer, who worked at an agency representing a large entertainment brand, claimed that Google representatives offered the unknown category as a solution to possibly target some teens after the brand threatened to move its ad spend to Meta, which allows some targeting of teens.