Facebook will restrict ad targeting of under-18s

New York: Facebook Inc. will stop allowing advertisers to target people under 18 years of age on its platforms based on their interests or their activity on other sites, it said on Tuesday in a slew of announcements about young users.

The change means advertisers will soon be able to target under-18s only by age, gender or location on Facebook, its Messenger service and its photo-sharing platform Instagram. In a blog post, Instagram said it was making the change because it agreed with youth advocates that young people might not be equipped to make decisions about targeting.