What parents need to know when it comes to protecting their children from the marketing of unhealthy products
FUN INTERACTIVE children’s games on food websites, outdoor theme parks sponsored by snack food manufacturers and free toys given out by fast food chains are among the ways unhealthy foods are marketed at children on a daily basis.
Sue Davies, chief policy officer with Which?, the UK consumer affairs agency, will be in Dublin tomorrow evening to give a public talk on what parents need to know when it comes to protecting children from unhealthy food marketing.
Take, for example, the UK broadcasting regulations – known to be one of the most stringent in the world. “The regulations state that advertisers can’t advertise unhealthy foods [defined as foods high in fat, sugar and/or salt] during programmes which have a particular appeal to children, yet they can advertise during programmes which have a higher proportion of adults watching but a fair amount of children watching too,” explains Davies.
This means that unhealthy foods for children can be advertised, say, during the X-Factor, she explains.
“It is precisely loopholes like this that we, in Ireland, can learn from,” says Maureen Mulvihill, head of health promotion at the Irish Heart Foundation, who is organising tomorrow’s public talk.
The Irish Heart Foundation would also like to see a revised Children’s Commercial Code from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland which would prohibit the advertising of unhealthy foods to children up to 9pm.
The habit of fast food chains giving out free toys to children was highlighted recently when San Francisco announced that it was planning to ban this practice with children’s meals unless fast food outlets got healthier.
“KFC have stopped giving out free toys with children’s meals yet they sponsor breakfast clubs in some Asian countries,” says Davies. “By contrast, McDonald’s hasn’t stopped free toys, but they have made their children’s meals healthier by reducing fat and salt,” she says.
“It’s great that toys aren’t as free flowing in fast food chains, but tackling marketing alone won’t solve things. Other steps from improving food in schools, clearer labelling and offering interesting healthier choices are also needed,” says Davies.
Yet Which? recently did an investigation which asked children what they ate in fast-food restaurants. They found they are still consuming large amounts of fat, sugar, salt and calories from fast food. Nearly 40 per cent of the eight to 11 year olds told the agency that McDonald’s was their favourite because of the toys in Happy Meals.
Davies says that a positive development she would like to see extended further is the use of cartoon characters on healthy foods.
“We’re so used to seeing cartoon characters on food packaging of children’s foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt, but there have been some examples of cartoon characters used on porridge and fruit. I’d like to see more of that.”
Davies also says that governments need to develop guidelines to cover non-broadcasting marketing (such as social networking, viral marketing and websites) to children.
“The food industry needs to rise to this challenge, see it as a real opportunity to innovate and use its creativity to help with efforts to make healthier choices appealing,” she says.
Protecting Children from Unhealthy Food Marketing– What Parents Need to Know is a free public lecture on tomorrow at 7.30pm in the National Gallery, Merrion Square West, Dublin 2. The speakers are Sue Davies, chief policy advisor with Which? and Dr Edna Roche, paediatric endocrinologist at the Adelaide, Meath and National Children's Hospital in Tallaght and head of Department of Paediatrics at Trinity College Dublin. Advance booking on tel: 01-6346953, e-mail sdaly@irishheart.ie
