Today’s teenagers are more plugged in than any other generation in history. Facebook, text messaging, and a never-ending cacophony of marketing communications enable teens to connect with each other and experience marketing messages virtually nonstop. More than any other generation, teens have made instant communication and, more broadly, an online lifestyle a significant part of their world. Their online experiences coupled with the ability of new media to track and store user information offer innovative opportunities for marketers to target advertising messages and monitor the results. Marketers are empowered as never before by the ability to track individual activities, analyze large amounts of data (big data), and then develop unique, individually targeted messaging and offerings to teens. For example, Facebook allows advertisers to create display ads using information from individual users that is posted in their profiles.

Given this environment, two critical questions for marketers to teens are (1) How much information should we collect and use to develop marketing messaging and (2) What are the most appropriate online marketing strategies from both an ethical and a business strategy perspective? Although the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires marketers to get parental consent to collect personal information on anyone younger than 13, no law regulates advertising or direct marketing to individuals over the age of 13. Marketing managers face difficult and strategic questions as they learn to operate in this brave new world of marketing to teenagers.

A key issue for both marketers and teenagers is the degree to which companies should use information that is readily available online. Private details about teens are available for analysis, but how much and to what degree should marketers use the information to create individual-specific promotional messaging? In addition, much of the individual data is self-generated (i.e., posted on social media sites by consumers) and there are few checks and balances to validate the information. Companies have the ability to connect a sophisticated understanding of teenagers with an individual’s personal data to develop highly targeted marketing communications.

How reliable and valid is the posted information? People on the Internet often make themselves a few years younger (or older in the case of teenagers), several inches taller, and maybe a few pounds lighter. Of most concern, today’s resourceful teenagers can create identities that allow them access to age-restricted websites such as eBay, which requires a buyer or seller to be 18. Because of this, marketers end up presenting messaging to youngsters that may not be appropriate for the age group—for example, someone under 21 may indicate a different age online and receive liquor or beer advertising.

There’s no doubt that teenagers appreciate brands and marketing and at the same time marketers appreciate greater access to those teens. On the surface, it would appear easier than ever to find and speak to the teen market, but things are not always as they seem.

Marketers: Should a marketer be allowed to use information from an individual’s social networking profile like Facebook to develop promotional messages? Is targeted messaging to teens based on analysis of personal information ethical?