This Week in Digital Marketing: EU moves towards teen social media ban
Plus: bad weeks for X, Meta and Snap
The EU is edging towards a coordinated teen social media ban - and if it sticks, it could quietly reshape how targeting works for everyone.
This has already been introduced in Australia (with unconvincing results), and discussed at length in the UK (a second proposal was rejected by MPs this week), however leaders from numerous nations alongside the European Comission will meet shortly to unify rules and enforcement.
For one, France plans to ban under-15s from social media, and is targeting the rollout of legislation by September.
Obviously as a digital marketer I have my own biases, and while I obviously think it’s a good thing to remove the risks of exploitation, it does feel like overkill - and, as already seen in Australia, potentially effectively pointless.
To this end however, the EU has launched an age verification app and said there are no excuses for not implementing the technology. Nevertheless, the jury is out on this, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see something similar happen to Australia in European countries, and we’ll be back to square one.
In terms of what this all means for digital marketers - targeting under-18s is, rightly, difficult on ad platforms. But consequently, unless you have an organic strategy heavily reliant on reaching younger users, this is unlikely to mean too much for you in the short term.
Instead, it feels like this, aligned with cases going on in the US and elsewhere about the “addictiveness” of the platform the bigger shift isn’t whether teenagers can use social media - it’s that platforms may be forced to dial back personalisation altogether.
What does this look like? Well, to cite one example from Sarah Wynn-Williams whistleblowing book, beauty brands might then find it harder to target vulnerable teenage girls. It should go without saying, that would be a good thing.
That said, it will make the already difficult task of targeting niche audiences on the platform harder, and likely push more people either to AI tools or away from advertising on social platforms. Which, presumably, is why platforms are so resistant. That is where the real potential for change lies - we’re a long way off that yet, but the direction of travel is clear.
Further Reading
Anecdotally, I’ve heard a lot of chatter about companies ignoring GDPR/cookie requirements, with fines and the chances of being caught sufficiently low to justify the risk.
Which is why it was interesting to read this week that an audit of over 7,000 websites in California found that 55% still set ad cookies even when users opted out. It should be said that Google, Meta, and Microsoft have rejected the findings, stating that the research was flawed.
There was also news this week that Grok is still creating sexual deepfakes, despite X promising to stop this from being possible.
Meta was also warned this week by numerous organisations that its new smart glasses will hand stalkers and abusers the opportunity to identify potential victims in public. But it did announce improvements to its Pixel/CAPI integration with websites, so hey, that’s something.
Sadly, the bad news wasn’t unique to X or Meta this week, with news that Snap has laid off 16% of its workforce. Revenue has been strong for Snap, but user growth is stalling, which is rarely a good sign for long-term ad inventory or pricing power.
That’s it for this week! I’ll be back next week. If you found this interesting, I would hugely appreciate it if you shared with your friends and colleagues.
If you’re feeling particularly generous and enjoyed this edition, I won’t stop you from buying me a coffee. Otherwise, I’ll see you next time 🫶