Gambling ads from Sportsbet can reach children on Snapchat through special promotional filters despite the platform attempting to restrict access, Guardian Australia can reveal.
Confirmation of the exposure comes one week after Sportsbet removed its ads from music streaming service Spotify, after Guardian Australia reported a complaint alleging ads were played between Disney and Bluey songs.
Both cases have been seized by politicians and public health experts urging the federal government to introduce a total ban on gambling ads, as recommended by a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry almost 18 months ago.
After being initially hesitant to advertise on Snapchat, which claims to reach 80% of 13-24-year-olds in Australia, Sportsbet created filters that can be imposed on people’s faces when they share images of themselves.
The filters include Sportsbet logos and direct 18+ users to open a gambling account. One transforms people into a racehorse with a Sportsbet-themed rosette. Another turns users into a presenter with a Sportsbet microphone.
Children are able to view these promotional filters when shared directly with them by friends who are 18+ or on other people’s stories. When the ads are seen by under-18 users, the link to Sportsbet’s website is disabled. They cannot access the filters themselves.
Guardian Australia has also confirmed under-18 users who lied about their age when registering their account have accessed the filters without detection. The UK’s media regulator recently warned 22% of eight- to 17-year-olds lied about being 18 or over on social media apps.
A Snapchat spokesperson said its “advertising policies restrict ads based on users’ age for certain regulated categories, including gambling, which must be targeted to users aged 18+ in Australia”.
“Snap makes available sophisticated targeting tools to advertisers to help enable their ads to reach the right audience, and we have a strong track record in ensuring advertising campaigns on Snapchat are viewed by the right audience demographic,” the spokesperson said.
A Sportsbet spokesperson said it “applies 18-plus age gating measures on Snapchat and other social platforms”.
“We take all reasonable steps to ensure our content reaches adult audiences, including restricting anyone under 18 from clicking on a Snapchat image through to the Sportsbet app.”
But Australia Capital Territory independent senator David Pocock questioned whether Sportsbet and social media companies had done enough to ensure children were not exposed to gambling content.
“After I raised that children were hearing their ads between Disney songs on Spotify, Sportsbet explicitly told me that they only advertise on platforms that are 18+ aged-gated,” Pocock said. “And then today I find out that anyone under 18 can receive a Sportsbet ad on Snapchat through a filter.”
Sportsbet has not pulled its promotional filters from Snapchat since Guardian Australia contacted it. After being told of the complaint to Spotify, it said it was “disappointed” and paused its advertising.
Unlike Spotify, Snapchat allows users to opt out of gambling ads. Other bookmakers have advertised on Snapchat, including Tabcorp, but their filters were unavailable at the time of reporting.
Simone McCarthy, a research fellow at Deakin University, said she was “extremely concerned about the ways in which children and young people are constantly being exposed to gambling ads and prompts to engage in betting in their physical and online environments”.
“This constant stream of positive messaging around gambling, a product that carries significant risks, reaching young people is really troubling,” McCarthy said.
“Gambling companies view 18-21-year-olds as a core customer base, and reaching them through social media to hook them early will lead to more people being negatively impacted by gambling.”
In April last year, Sportsbet’s chief executive officer, Barni Evans, told a parliamentary inquiry he was initially hesitant to advertise on Snapchat due to concerns minors might see content.
“My team refused to engage in commercial partnership with Snapchat for, I think, the best part of two years whilst our competitors carried on because we weren’t convinced that at that point in time Snapchat had the reliable age-gating technology,” Evans said.
