Facebook's Australian operation rocked by allegations targeting vulnerable youth

The Australian operation of social media giant Facebook came under fire on Monday, after internal documents revealed they were targeting vulnerable young Australians with their advertising.

In a document obtained by The Australian, the process of utilising the data acquired by Facebook to subsequently target young, vulnerable Australians was outlined, with the site determining when children felt "stressed," "overwhelmed" and "nervous," among other feelings, using this to determine relevant advertisements.

Facebook in a statement issued an apology, and said they will conduct an internal investigation into the conduct.

"We have opened an investigation to understand the process failure and improve our oversight. We will undertake disciplinary and other processes as appropriate," a spokesperson said.

The leaked 23-page document was authored by two of the company's top executives in Australia -- David Fernandez, their national relationships agency manager, and Andy Sinn -- who claimed in the report that the data they collected was able to accurately predict what times in the week the children would experience different things.

"Anticipatory emotions are more likely to be expressed early in the week, while reflective emotions increase on the weekend," the authors said.

"Monday-Thursday is about building confidence; the weekend is for broadcasting achievements."

The actions of the social media giant may be in breach of the Australian Code for Advertising & Marketing Communications to Children guidelines, which prohibits the collection of any data from those under the age of 14 that may be used to identify them. Endit