A recent report by the Financial Times has revealed that Meta and Google covertly collaborated on a campaign that targeted Instagram ads at 13 to 17-year-olds on YouTube, breaking Google's own rules against advertising to minors.

The campaign, reportedly run between February and April this year, manipulated Google's ad systems by exploiting a loophole. Ads were directed at users classified as "unknown," a demographic that Google knew likely included younger users. This move violates Google's 2021 policy, which prohibits targeting ads based on the "age, gender, or interests of people under 18".

The controversial initiative was initially tested in Canada before being trialled in the US, with plans for global expansion. The campaign, orchestrated by Spark Foundry, a subsidiary of Publicis, was driven by declining advertising revenues at Google and Meta's struggle to retain younger users, who are increasingly turning to platforms like TikTok.