Feb. 27, 2014 5:51 p.m. ET
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"Who do you like?" asked recent ads on Facebook, FB -0.46% Facebook Inc. Cl A U.S.: Nasdaq $68.94 -0.32 -0.46% Feb. 27, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 41.12M AFTER HOURS $68.98 +0.04 +0.06% Feb. 27, 2014 7:47 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 553,769 P/E Ratio 113.02 Market Cap $176.60 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $1,242,230 02/27/14 5 Things to Do to Protect Teen... 02/27/14 How Ad Targeting Works on Face... 02/27/14 Nude Webcams and Diet Drugs: t... More quote details and news » FB in 
Your Value Your Change Short position featuring young women in alluring poses.
Some of the ads were configured to reach young teens, who were invited to join an app called Ilikeq that let others rate their attractiveness, comment on their photos and say if they would like to date them.
How Ad Targeting Works on Facebook
See a portion of what some advertisers see with Facebook's ad-creation tool.
That's how 14-year-old Erica Lowder's picture ended up on display to adult men online. Users of Ilikeq, one of Facebook's fastest-growing "lifestyle" apps, were able to click through to the Indianapolis girl's Facebook page.
"How can Facebook say here's how we're going to protect your kids, then sell all these ads to weird apps and sites that open kids up to terrible things?" asked Erica's mother, Dawn Lowder.
The case offers a glimpse into how young Facebook users are sometimes exposed to ads inappropriate for them. A 14-year-old girl in Washington state said she "liked" an ad that led to the Facebook page of a nude webcam-modeling site. A 17-year-old boy in an Oakland, Calif., neighborhood beset by gun violence repeatedly saw an ad for a concealed-carry handgun holster. (See what it's like to create an ad on Facebook and how targeting works.)
The ads highlight Facebook Inc.'s challenge in policing a social network that has more than a billion users and a million advertisers, by its count. Facebook generated roughly $7 billion in Internet advertising last year, more than any other company except Google Inc. GOOG -0.08% Google Inc. Cl A U.S.: Nasdaq $1219.21 -0.96 -0.08% Feb. 27, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1.24M AFTER HOURS $1219.59 +0.38 +0.03% Feb. 27, 2014 7:41 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 23,024 P/E Ratio 33.38 Market Cap $411.50 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $1,110,730 02/27/14 What WSJ Canada Is Reading Thu... 02/27/14 Google's Doodles Celebrate Mor... 02/26/14 Boeing Plans to Launch Secure ... More quote details and news » GOOG in Your Value Your Change Short position Facebook posted net income of $1.5 billion for 2013, and its shares are near an all-time high.
Facebook said it approved the ads for young teens because it hadn't categorized Ilikeq as a dating site. It said it has now done so and has disabled Ilikeq ads for those below its minimum age for dating-site ads, 18.
Asked about the ads reaching young teens, a co-founder of Ilikeq, Olda Neuberger, said by email from Prague, Czech Republic, that Ilikeq isn't a dating site, although online tools show its first two "meta tags"—which website builders set to optimize Internet searches—are "dating" and "free online dating." Mr. Neuberger said connecting young teens and adults was unintentional and he has now changed the app and website to exclude those under 18.
One issue for the social network—as well as for advertisers and for parents—is that some young teens exaggerate their ages in their Facebook profiles. Thirteen is the minimum age to join Facebook. (Parents, weigh in: What worries you most?)
The situation is compounded by Facebook's social advertising system, in which users who click to "like" an ad can be featured as having "liked" it in future versions of the ad shown to their Facebook friends. And once they "like" an ad for a Facebook page, they will receive updates from that page.
Advertisers on Facebook can set their ads to reach all users or narrow the focus. Facebook's website says it can help advertisers target consumers based on an array of user information it collects, such as age, gender, relationship status, politics and type of phone owned.
"We take the quality of ads on Facebook very seriously," Facebook said in a statement. "Because of the enormous volume of ads under review on a daily basis, we invest significant resources in both automated and manual tools to enforce our policies, along with tools to educate advertisers."
Facebook said that while its methods were effective at identifying and removing "the vast majority" of prohibited ads before they run, "no system is perfect. When we find or are made aware of prohibited ads, we remove them immediately, as we did for the prohibited ads [cited by The Wall Street Journal]."
In many cases, Facebook said, it will disable an advertiser's account entirely if it violates the company's policies.
Once posted, ads can be flagged as inappropriate by users and reviewed again. The system then gets smarter, taking into account past flagged ads, Facebook said. The company said it cracks down on problem areas, such as dating ads using racy photos and headlines. It declined to say how many ads it rejects.
Other online platforms also face challenges policing what are largely self-serve systems for advertisers to build their own ads. Google in 2011 acknowledged it had helped Canadian pharmacies run ads that targeted the U.S., which the Justice Department said led to unlawful importation of prescription drugs into the U.S. Google agreed to forfeit $500 million, a sum representing its revenue from the ads plus revenue received by the Canadian pharmacies from their sales to U.S. consumers. "It's obvious with hindsight that we shouldn't have allowed these ads on Google in the first place," Google said at the time.
Google and Twitter Inc., TWTR -0.18% Twitter Inc. U.S.: NYSE $55.77 -0.10 -0.18% Feb. 27, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 6.53M AFTER HOURS $55.85 +0.08 +0.14% Feb. 27, 2014 7:34 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 14,155 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap $30.96 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $332,445 02/27/14 Dark Forecast for Twitter's U.... 02/27/14 J.P.Morgan Hands Debt Capital ... 02/26/14 Survey Says: Social Media Gain... More quote details and news » TWTR in Your Value Your Change Short position like Facebook, use a mix of computers and humans to review ads. Google said it doesn't allow ads for counterfeit goods or handguns. It does display ads for adult webcam sites and concealed-weapon holsters. Google said it removed more than 350 million improper ads in 2013, up 59% from 2012. Twitter said it doesn't allow ads related to sex, drugs and weapons, among other topics.
Unlike Facebook, Google and Twitter don't enable advertisers to explicitly target specific age groups, although advertisers on Google can indirectly appeal to certain age groups by taking users' searches into account. And Twitter has certain age rules: Users have to give their age if they want to see alcohol ads. Twitter doesn't push ads to users based on their social connections or list friends as having "liked" a product. Google recently began including users' social connections in some ads.
Some advertisers said Facebook's targeting system has been a factor in their ads being shown to young teens. "It's ridiculously complicated," said Greg Carr, president of Desert Warrior Products, whose ad for AK-47 parts and accessories such as scopes reached young teens. Mr. Carr said he intended it only for those over 18. The ad no longer is displayed to younger people.
Facebook used to limit ads to users 18 and older by default. An advertiser who wanted to reach younger people had to change the setting.
In 2011, it eliminated this restriction for some advertisers, so their ads could be shown to all unless specified. That change was extended to all advertisers in 2012, around the time of Facebook's initial public offering.
The change meant roughly 10 million U.S. Facebook users aged from 13 to 17 were exposed to a wider range of marketing. Facebook said it made the change because most advertisers wanted to reach users of all ages, and most ads are appropriate for all.
Sophie Bean, 14, of Sequim, Wash., said she was thought she was "liking" a Facebook ad related to fashion modeling. Instead, it promoted a Facebook page that recruited adult webcam models.
"I just thought it was for modeling, and I'm interested in that, and I thought it would help me out," Sophie said.
Clicking "like" on the ad meant she also had "liked" a Facebook page that contains links to the website of a firm called Internet Modeling. The website says that "generally webcam models are asked to pose nude."
Sophie wasn't the only teen connecting with the page, which Facebook statistics show is most popular with users 13 to 17. Clicking on it didn't pull the teens into nude webcam modeling, but did mean they would receive the page's updates and could be mentioned in future versions of the ad.
Sophie's father, Robert Bean, said he found the matter "pretty disgusting." He said that if Facebook is aware of such ads, "they need to be exposed for dealing with companies like this."
Internet Modeling, of Tampa, Fla., said the ad was placed by an affiliate marketer—an agent that buys ads for others on Facebook and other sites—in violation of Internet Modeling's terms of service.
"This seems to be an issue with Facebook accepting and showing such ads to 14 year olds," the company said in an email. Internet Modeling, which describes itself as an adult talent agency, said it doesn't intend to advertise to minors and requires that all models be at least 18.
The ad no longer appears on Facebook. The social network said it deleted all ads related to adult services brought to its attention by the Journal.
Facebook is also a hub for diet ads, some of which have reached teens younger than its minimum age for seeing these, which is 18.
Ads for diet products containing a substance called HCG have run on Facebook. HCG, a hormone produced during pregnancy, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a prescription drug for infertility. But the agency, in a 2011 news release headed "HCG Diet Products Are Illegal," said HCG doesn't help with weight loss and isn't approved for over-the-counter sale for any purpose.
A Florida outfit that has run Facebook ads in the past uses an "HCG Diet Kits" Facebook page as an online storefront to sell HCG serum and syringes. The page is most popular with Facebook users aged 13 to 24, according to Facebook's statistics. On Feb. 20, the page posted "Back in stock!" and listed prices for its diet-shots kits to its Facebook following.
Facebook said it doesn't allow ads for HCG products, has disapproved ads from this page recently, and is reviewing the page because of its ongoing HCG sales.
The social network prohibits ads for gun sales but permits ads for gun accessories, without age limits. These include holsters for concealed handguns.
The ads are a source of concern for adults at Youth UpRising, a teen community center in East Oakland, Calif. Many of the teens in the gun-ridden neighborhood said such ads have become commonplace for them on Facebook.
During recent visits to the center, which provides a safe place in the neighborhood where young people can polish their résumés and learn to avoid credit-card debt, one of the most frequent Facebook ads displayed to teens was for a concealed-carry holster called Versacarry.
Tyrell Cloird, a 17-year-old who spoke of his hope to make a career in auto mechanics, has repeatedly seen ads for the holsters, which hide a handgun under clothes. Beneath was the name of a youth he knew who had "liked" the Versacarry page on Facebook.
Olis Simmons, president and chief executive of Youth UpRising, called it "truly heartbreaking that the same young people dying in our streets" are seeing "adult-themed ads for things such as gun holsters by advertisers looking to make a buck."
Versacarry's maker, Sitzco LLC, said in an emailed statement that "we target all legal and responsible concealed-carry firearm owners."
A spokeswoman for Facebook said it allows such ads so long as they don't promote the sales of guns themselves.
Write to Jeff Elder at jeff.elder@wsj.com
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