US tech giants Google and Meta have been accused of making a ‘secret deal’ to target teenagers with ads following a wide-ranging investigation by the Financial Times.

Specifically targeting 13 to 17 years-olds, the campaign reportedly broke Google’s own safeguarding rules by focusing its attention on a user group labelled ‘unknown’, which the search firm knew contained a high concentration of under-18s.

Spearheaded by Publicis-owned media agency Spark Foundry US, the FT claims that the project was launched under the auspice of social media outfit Meta, with a pilot programme rolled out between February and April before a US trial in May.

Both companies had planned to expand the programme to further international markets to promote the use of Meta apps like Facebook, however these plans have now reportedly been shelved as a result of the FT’s investigation.

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Google has since initiated an investigation into the deal after being contacted by the newspaper, with a spokesperson saying: “We prohibit ads being personalised to people under 18, period. These policies go well beyond what is required and are supported by technical safeguards.

“We’ve confirmed that these safeguards worked properly here. We’ll also be taking additional action to reinforce with sales representatives that they must not help advertisers or agencies run campaigns attempting to work around our policies.”

A Meta statement added: “We’ve been open about marketing our apps to teens as a place for them to connect with friends, find community, and discover their interests.

“Google’s ‘unknown’ targeting option is available to all advertisers – not just Meta – and we have clear principles we adhere to when it comes to how we market our apps to teens on other platforms, including not using information about their interests to target them with ads.”