Teens monitored for exposure to junk food ads

Food advertising can contribute to obesity and diet-related diseases, Vandevijvere says.

Anew code tightening the rules of food and drink advertising towards children can’t do much to stop it, but a new app might.

In March, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) replaced the Code for Advertising to Children and the Children’s Code for Advertising Food.

The new code means companies have a duty of care when advertising fast foods and sugary drinks towards people under 18.

The ASA has no ability to monitor ads targeting children on social media but the University of Auckland may have a solution.

It has a team trying to find out how exposed teenagers are to food advertising on Facebook.

Currently they are looking for 16-to-18 year olds to volunteer to install AdHealth – a browser extension that runs in the background of the web browser and records the ads seen by participants in their Facebook newsfeed.

AdHealth will also collect the teenagers’ date of birth, gender, and any engagement they make with ads such as whether they clicked, liked, commented on, or shared the ad, but no other personal information.

Senior research fellow Stefanie Vandevijvere said participation was free and voluntary, and participants or their parents could withdraw at any time.

Information collected is used to give participants a rating based on how long they’re exposed to unhealthy food advertising.

Vandevijvere said she hoped the information gathered would lead to a policy response from Government.

ASA chief executive Hilary Souter said the watchdog did not monitor advertisements but had trained 400 people from the advertising and media sectors after the code was introduced.

‘‘The food marketing industry in New Zealand is self-regulating... If the codes are breached, the ASA holds them to account through a complaints system.’’