Privacy activists and policymakers express deep qualms about letting political campaigns have free rein to target future voters before they’ve become legal adults. They say teenagers lack the proper context and experience to make sense of so many brass-knuckle attack ads on complicated issues ranging from the federal deficit to terrorism. Civic-minded efforts to encourage youth turnout can come close to crossing the line too, including a viral Rock the Vote video on which rapper Lil Jon said his reason for casting a ballot in 2014 was to legalize marijuana, and a Koch Brothers-affiliated Generation Opportunity commercial that used a particularly scary Uncle Sam mask to urge young women to opt out of Obamacare. Making data on young voters publicly available also opens them up not just to messages from Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, but from anyone else who wants to contact kids online.
“You want your 16-year-old daughter’s name and address on the web in this world?” said Vicki Berger, a retiring Oregon state representative who has tried to restrict the public release of teenagers’ personal data when they pre-register to vote in her state before they turn 18. She warns that the information could end up in the hands of “pedophiles and people preying on young girls.”
Beyond the privacy issues associated with targeting minors, campaigns face other serious questions about whether it’s even worth the time and money to make a play for the youngest of young voters. Only half of the 18-29 set actually turned out for the 2012 election. Logistically, just keeping tabs on these teenagers is a headache considering many will be leaving their parents’ homes and heading off to college in a different state or congressional district right around the same time the two parties are holding their national political conventions.
But the payoff is also almost too big to ignore.
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