>The options-space for doing this appears to be:

(0) give up

...

(n) waste resources

yeah, i think current state is good enough, might as well slap regulation and ban any form of targetted ads.

I'd be on board with banning micro-targeted ads, and more broadly any use of psychology to induce similar states as regulated exogenous drugs equivalent to the simple language descriptions of US Schedule I, II, and III.

However, the issues are rather broader than showing ads to kids who have no money to spend on whatever is being advertised.