Don’t ignore issue

IT has long been established that junk food should not be advertised to children – for health reasons that are abundantly clear. That is why there is a TV watershed of 6pm for such advertising: because such ads are harmful to the most vulnerable in society.

Yet when it comes to the internet, once again our political leaders have taken their eye off the ball – or, indeed, chosen to ignore the problem altogether.

The Irish Heart Foundation is warning that the voluntary code of practice launched last year is proving utterly ineffective – as most critics pointed out it would be.

This raises two issues. The first is that the code of conduct for advertisers online needs to be mandatory, and backed up with substantial fines for those who use the internet to try to target junk food at children. Secondly, it is yet more evidence that the authorities need to start accepting that smartphones carry massive risks for children, who simply cannot be expected to regulate their behaviour online in the way adults do.

If we truly care about children, we need to start protecting them online, just as we do in the real world.