Facebook accused of allowing advertisers to target anxious teens

Advertisers have long been known to play on our emotions, but perhaps capitalising on the feelings of a sensitive teenager is a step to far? 

Facebook has found itself in hot water recently after a report claimed it helped advertisers target teenagers who may be suffering with insecurities and anxiety.

The Australian, an online news outlet, obtained the leaked document which accused the social networking site of conducting research which was then in turn used to help their advertisers take advantage of the "moments when young people need a confidence boost."

However, a Facebook representative has since dismissed the claims, calling the report ‘’misleading’’.

Facebook also released an official statement in which they promised to review the research process.

‘’The premise of the article is misleading. Facebook does not offer tools to target people based on their emotional state.’’

‘’The analysis done by an Australian researcher was intended to help marketers understand how people express themselves on Facebook.’’

‘’Facebook has an established process to review the research we perform. This research did not follow that process, and we are reviewing the details to correct the oversight.’’

This isn't the first time Facebook has been accused of honing in on it's users emotions.

In 2014 the site monitored how almost 700,000 people reacted to changes in their news feed, and found that negative feeling were contagious. The move was heavily criticised at by experts at the time.