Consumer groups urge Facebook to ban ads to kids

Consumer and child safety advocates pressed Facebook to beef up safety and privacy efforts if it goes forward with plans to allow children under 13 to use the social networking site.

In a letter to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, the groups said any space for preteen users should be free of advertising and supervised by parents. The consumer advocacy groups, which include Consumers Union, the Center for Digital Democracy, World Privacy Forum and Consumer Federation of America, said any collection of personal information shouldn’t be used by marketers to target ads at preteens based on the interests they display on Facebook. “The company’s business model relies, at its very core, on data collection, ad targeting, and viral marketing, and many of its practices have generated public and government privacy concerns,” the groups said in their letter to Zuckerberg.