Meta preys on vulnerable teens

Eight years after The Australian revealed it, Facebook owner Meta’s cruel and insidious strategy to target vulnerable teenagers when they’re down with a barrage of ads has been laid bare before a US Senate inquiry. Whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former director of global public policy at Facebook, which rebranded itself Meta in 2021, testified about how the insidious tactic played on the emotional state of 13-17-year-olds. Some of Meta’s senior executives barred their own children from using it because they knew how harmful it was. Her evidence underlines why Meta’s objection to Australia’s social media ban on children under 16 has no credibility.

In a story that raised profound ethical questions about Facebook’s use of covert surveillance, Darren Davidson reported in May 2017 that the tech giant was using sophisticated algorithms to identify and exploit teenagers by allowing advertisers to target them at their most vulnerable. That story was based on a 23-page confidential document that outlined how the network monitored internet activity to work out when young people were anxious and upset and needed “a confidence boost”.

Ms Wynn-Williams’s evidence suggests little has changed with the $US1.48 trillion ($2.41 trillion) company as it seeks to profit from the mental health struggles of children.