The kids are not alright
Marketing of unhealthy food weighed by governments
Most would agree that protecting children should be our country’s utmost priority.
Keeping them away from unhealthy food has been the subject of many conversations. Ads for sugary products geared toward children have been contested for years, and some countries have opted to ban them. The United Kingdom, the latest to do so, has blocked TV advertising for food products high in fat, salt and sugar between 5:30 a.m. and 9 p.m.
In Canada, there has been an attempt to regulate ads aimed toward children. Bill S-228, known as the Child Health Protection Act, was introduced with the intention of restricting the marketing of food and beverage products high in salt, saturated fat and sugar to children 12 and younger. However, it never received further consideration by the federal government due to the 2019 election.
While Parliament has not done anything since, Health Canada has provided guidelines for industry to consider and is examining the U.K. rules on advertising.
Meanwhile, our food industry recently released a Code for the Responsible Advertising of Food and Beverage Products to Children. A coalition, which includes most major processors and restaurants in Canada, chose not to wait for Ottawa to regulate this advertising.
The announcement mentions that the code exceeds Health Canada’s recommendations. Perhaps, but many have been skeptical of selfregulating proposals coming from industry. When it comes to public health issues, Canadians tend to trust governments more.
There is some science to not wanting marketing to persuade young consumers. Recent developments in neuroscience have shown that younger children’s cognitive development prevents them from making rational decisions when watching advertising and can skew judgment on what products are desirable.
And marketing is all about creating desires. Many countries have recognized this. Mexico, Iran, Chile and many European countries have regulated marketing practices for food products.
According to Statistics Canada, nearly a third of Canadian children are overweight or obese, and many suspect that the number may have gone up in recent months. Lockdowns and continuing public safety measures have kept many children away from organized sports and physical activities and put a toll on our youth’s overall health. This is one challenge regulators will have to keep in mind.
But regulating advertising to children is not as simple as one may think. First, television is not how most children take in information these days.
Streaming services and social media are the main vehicles used by many. Regulating anything on these platforms can be difficult.
In 1980, Quebec imposed a ban on advertisements for toys and food aimed at children under 13 in print and electronic media. That ban has had mixed results since many people in the province will watch content broadcast from outside the province. Also, food companies now advertise to older children, which makes the 13-year-old threshold difficult to implement in many social and commercial settings.
Bill C-10, aimed at updating Canada’s Broadcasting Act, would have given Ottawa more power to regulate services such as Amazon Prime, Disney+ and Netflix. Compliance would be expected of everyone as it is now for traditional broadcasters such as CTV, Global and private radio stations.
Without any of this, regulating content of many media will be challenging, if not impossible. But with an election looming, Bill C-10 may suffer the same fate as Bill S-228 and never see the light of day.
Beyond regulations, though, lies one of the most powerful tools we have when it comes to sound nutrition: education. Kids do not buy these products, parents do. Given that children are highly vulnerable, parents should continue to act as gatekeepers of fridges and cupboards. It is critical we do not let parents off the hook.
Industry will always innovate and be ahead of policy and regulations aimed at banning certain practices. When it comes to food, our best defence is good, responsible parenting.
Over time, as a society, we get to decide the rights and wrongs by asking governments to act. Misguided advertising aimed at children by the food industry may very well be one of these cases.
In the meantime, since industry has undoubtedly recognized that we have a problem by releasing its own code to limit advertising to children, we ought to give this a shot and see what happens over the next few years.
But Ottawa should certainly put industry on notice. There is nothing more precious than our children.