Leicester Mercury

Dev calls for ‘end to bombardmen­t of junk food ads’

16-YEAR-OLD LEADS GROUP SET TO MEET WITH MINISTER

- By STAFF REPORTER biteback20­30.com/our-campaigns

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CAMPAIGNER­S led by a teenager from Leicester are to meet a health minister to put their case against junk food advertisin­g.

Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock agreed to meet the youth board of Bite Back 2030 after its campaign was raised in Parliament by Tory MP Andrew Selous.

He asked: “Given the link between Covid deaths and obesity, does the Secretary of State share my concern that children from the poorest constituen­cies are being the most heavily targeted by social media junk food adverts, and that over half of the top UK child influencer­s on Instagram have promoted junk food in the last year?

“Will he meet some of the young people from Bite Back 2030, who are concerned about this?”

The campaign group said it had found that 500 junk food ads go out every second online that are seen by children.

Dev Sharma, who is Bite Back 2030’s Youth Board co-chairman and a Youth Parliament member for the city, said: “It’s good to see the people in power committing to listen to the voices of young people.

“I’m a 16-year-old boy from Leicester. I feel like I’m being bombarded with junk food ads on my phone and computer, and I’m pretty sure it’s getting worse.

“They are everywhere, popping up when we’re watching videos, when I’m gaming with friends, and we don’t have an escape, especially not at the moment when we are living on our screens.”

He said he had recently written to Mr Hancock calling for an end to the relentless exposure to online junk food advertisin­g, and asked him to meet with him and other young people to hear about their first-hand experience­s.”

Mr Hancock said in the House of Commons that Mr Selous was “right to raise an incredibly important point”.

Bite Back 2030 is supporting a government proposal for a complete restrictio­n of junk food marketing online as the only way to protect children and support parents.

For more, see:

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