Children risk being targeted by ‘aggressive gambling adverts on social media’
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The Church of England has warned that a social media advertising “loophole” could leave children exposed to “aggressive” gambling adverts.
Rt Revd Alan Smith, the Bishop of St Albans, said a ruling this week by the , set a concerning “precedent” for promotions on social media.
The watchdog’s ruling dismissed complaints about poker adverts on a popular YouTube channel, as the owner supplied analytics from the site showing that most of his audience were over 18.
However, the Bishop warned that the analytics were an “incredibly dubious metric” as YouTube, which has a minimum age of 13, does not have any age verification and many viewers watch it without signing into an account.
The ASA responded saying the ruling did not create a “loophole” but “reflects our rules and commitment to protecting young audiences”.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Bishop Smith, said: “This case sets an uncertain precedent whereby gambling companies could potentially utilise online video platforms to aggressively target children.
“Official platform data on audience age is an incredibly dubious metric as many viewers are not linked to registered accounts. Even then, it is not hard to circumvent age restricted content by simply entering in a fake date of birth when registering an account.”
The Bishop, who is also the church's lead on gambling, warned that with 55,000 child problem gamblers in the UK, those making rules to protect them from betting ads could not rely on “data that offers zero degrees of certainty”.
He added: “With independent online video already being the media medium of the future, it is vital that the ASA close these clever loopholes that may be exploited by gambling operators.”
The warning comes after the advertising watchdog received complaints about sponsored posts on the Calfreezy prank and stunt YouTube channel, which is run by Callum Airey, a 27-year-old influencer, and has almost four million subscribers.
