Facebook has been accused of harvesting teenagers’ data and receiving money from advertisers to show them personalised ads.
Lobby group Reset Australia developed a “dubious ads” campaign on Facebook that targeted 13-17-year-olds interested in gambling, alcohol, vaping and “extreme weight loss.”
To investigate whether the company would offer younger people stronger protections, Reset Australia said it did not run the ads but sought approval from Facebook to broadcast them.
The group claimed Facebook approved a number of “inappropriate” ads, including one of a woman in a bikini, asking teens if they were “summer ready”.
The campaign highlighted the “lack of oversight” on Facebook ads, according to Reset Australia executive director Chris Cooper.
Mr Cooper questioned why Facebook is allowing advertisers to direct “harmful” ads towards those aged 13-17 who are interested in “extreme weight loss”.
“It draws the attention to the bigger question, which is, are we comfortable with the companies like Facebook, surveilling, tracking, targeting children and teenagers at all?”
Social media and body image
Over the years, experts have higher levels of social media use and greater depressive symptoms, lower self-esteem, body image concerns and disordered eating.
According to, body dissatisfaction is reported by approximately 50 per cent of pre-adolescent girls, while pre-adolescent boys are increasingly reporting a desire for a more muscular body.
Eating disorders are an incredibly complex mental illness, with the most vulnerable age being adolescents, according to Amelia Trinick, Butterfly clinician and Helpline team leader.
“Adolescents are in a high-risk category for the development of eating disorders due to reasons such as puberty and associated changes in the body, school pressure, bullying, parental divorce, or traumatic life experiences and changes,” Ms Trinick said.
During the pandemic, Butterfly experienced a 150 per cent increase in calls to its helpline.
Alex Cowen, communications manager at Butterfly, said the organisation has been increasingly alerted to content across social media platforms “that could have a significant impact on someone’s body image or in some cases fuel an eating disorder”.
However, she said Butterfly has active conservations with Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram, with the companies making “important moves to ensure that when someone is searching for a hashtag related to eating disorders, they are prompted to access the Butterfly Foundation’s Helpline.”
Butterfly Foundation spokesperson, Katie Cameron, was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa when she was a teenager.
Katie Cameron is a spokesperson at the Butterfly Foundation. Source: Supplied
“The absence of any psychological support left me with an empty tool kit, which quickly became filled with unhelpful self-created coping strategies and a new, more covert diagnosis: Bulimia,” she told The Feed.
Katie said when she was a teenager, social media wasn’t as prominent as it is today but she remembers feeling a sense of “discomfort” and alienation” reading teen magazines.
“Retrospectively, I think my sense of self was squashed from discovery due to consuming so much of this type of media noise,” Katie said.
“It falsely led me to believe that the entirety of my self-worth and success was wrapped up in how I looked,” she added.
Plan International Australia youth advocate, Margaret Thanos, said she first got Facebook on her 13th birthday.
Margaret Thanos is an artist and youth advocate at Plan International Australia. Source: Supplied
Margaret said whenever she’d search on Google for something related to fitness or wellbeing, she’d get a flurry of ads on the topic from Facebook and Instagram.
“Teeth whitening, skinny teas, juice fasts, I’ve definitely seen those kinds of things on Instagram,” she told The Feed.
Margaret said she finds it “concerning” the level to which Facebook can profile a person - particularly teenagers.
“I'm not sure that at the age of 13, you're able to properly give consent to the sharing and use of your data in whatever way they're using it to companies and for their own profit margins,” Margaret said.
Facebook and Instagram claim they have been working to address negative body image issues driven by content posted on their platforms.
Facebook has hidden posts promoting diet products and cosmetic procedures to users under the age of 18 Source: Getty Images Europe
“Keeping young people safe across Facebook and Instagram is vital. Anyone advertising on our platforms must comply with our policies along with all local laws, such as those restricting the advertising of alcohol to minors in Australia,” a spokesperson at Facebook Australia told The Feed.
“To support this, we also have age restriction tools that all businesses can implement to better control who sees their content.”
Facebook’s “ads must not contain "before-and-after" images or images that contain unexpected or unlikely results.”
They also advise “ad content must not imply or attempt to generate negative self-perception in order to promote diet, weight loss or other health-related products.”
In 2019, Facebook announced posts nd cosmetic procedures would no longer be visible to Facebook and Instagram users under the age of 18.
Where to next?
Mr Cooper said new laws are needed to reign in social media companies and ensure data collected from teenagers is only captured and processed in ways that are in their best interests.
“We're calling for a children's data code, which is in line with legislation that's already been passed,” he told The Feed.
Similar legislation calling for a ‘’ has been proposed in Ireland.
The legislation, proposed last December, would introduce child-specific data protection principles and measures to “protect children against data processing risks when they access services, both online and off-line.”
Now 20 and working as an artist, Margaret uses Facebook to find work and to socialise with friends. She feels that Facebook has made itself an “indispensable service” that’s hard to quit.
Margaret is an artist and uses Facebook to find work. Source: Supplied
“During high school, without question, everybody had Facebook, and you were weird if you didn't,” Margaret told The Feed.
“I kind of feel like I’m in a rock and a hard place [with not being able to quit Facebook].
“I do, definitely, think that there should be more regulations around the way that we market [ads] towards young people.”
After years of “doom-scrolling”, Katie began to recognise the negative impacts some social media content had on her mental health.
She believes platforms should invest in workshops and training for young people that teaches them about healthy habits and critical thinking when curating their online followings.
“I don’t know that we’ll ever eliminate all the content that makes us feel vulnerable to certain thinking or behaviours. But reinforcing messages about the benefits of diversifying your social media accounts might help to turn down the volume on that occasional post that previously might have caused a spiral.”
If you or someone you know is in immediate crisis, please call police and ambulance on 000.
For further help, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800.
If you’d like more information on eating disorders or information about how to help someone affected, head to the .
The Butterfly National Helpline (1800 33 4673 - 1800 ED HOPE) offers free and confidential support for anyone concerned about eating disorders or body image issues.
