Campaigners call for junk food ads to be BANNED before 9pm as HALF of all snacks plugged between TV shows are crammed with too much sugar, fat or salt
- World Cancer Fund said UK is failing to protect children from junk food harms
- UK has a duty to ‘protect, respect and fulfil children’s right to health’, they said
- WCRF says marketing limits on fatty, salty and sugary foods ‘urgently required’
- Restrictions would limit the impact on food and drink preferences
Junk food adverts should be banned before 9pm to curb spiralling childhood obesity rates, campaigners argue.
The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) slammed the UK Government for failing to protect children from the effects of ‘harmful’ food marketing.
Ministers last year carried out a review looking into how effective a 9pm watershed on junk food adverts would be. But it found that the intervention would be ineffective.
WCRF said the government was failing children’s ‘basic human rights’ by ignoring the evidence.
It claimed 49 per cent of the food adverts between 6pm and 9pm in May 2018 were directly advertising high fat, salt and sugar foods.
Children carrying extra weight are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer or have a stroke in adulthood.
In its latest forecast, Public Health England predicts obesity levels could jump by up to four per cent by 2024
Previous research has suggested that content on TV and online can affect food preferences and drive children to eat junk food.
In the UK, more than one in three children in the UK (34 per cent) are obese or overweight when they leave primary school.
One in every 25 British ten to 11-year-olds are severely obese, the fattest possible category.
Government-funded analysis has shown half of all food adverts between 6pm and 9pm in the UK are for products high in fat, salt or sugar.
A Cancer Research UK survey in 2018 of almost 2,500 children found those who used the internet or watched commercial television for more than half an hour a day were more likely to ask for, buy or eat junk food.
Experts found youngsters who watched more than three hours of commercial TV a day ate an average of ten extra snack items, such as crisps, biscuits or fizzy drinks, a week compared with those who watched very little TV.
However, when they watched TV without adverts, there was no link between screen time and the likelihood of eating more junk food.
Each additional hour children spent watching commercial TV was linked to more than a 20 per cent increased chance of children craving for food they’d seen advertised or buying the food they’d seen advertised.
The children who watched more than three hours of commercial TV a day were 59 per cent more likely to be overweight or obese than children who watched half an hour a day or less.
Researchers found the primary school-age children surveyed spent an average of 16 hours a week on the internet.
Every additional hour children spent online was linked to a 19 per cent increased chance of children asking for food they’d seen advertised and a 19 per cent increased chance of buying the food they’d seen advertised.
Those who used the internet more than 3 hours a day were 79 per cent more likely to be overweight or obese than children who used the internet half an hour a day or less.
The only guidelines that currently exist to reduce junk food adverts around children, by broadcast regulator Ofcom, prohibit junk food advertising from appearing alongside children’s TV shows.
But campaigners, such as WCRF, want junk food adverts completely banned before 9pm.
Kate Oldridge-Turner, head of policy at WCRF, said: ‘Our report highlights the vital role that governments play in ensuring that junk food not be actively promoted to children.
‘We are calling for the new UK government to take a fresh approach at tackling childhood obesity rates.
‘For example, by introducing tighter restrictions on junk food marketing aimed at children that prevent food companies finding loopholes in the current legislation; such as a 9pm watershed on junk food adverts across all media.’
Caroline Cerny, from the Obesity Health Alliance, said junk food adverts are seen by children on various media platforms – including online.
She said: ‘The food industry use a range of marketing techniques to keep the spotlight on their products and evidence shows that children are particularly vulnerable.
‘TV shows and websites popular with children are flooded with adverts for high fat and sugary products and the Government needs to do more to ensure that children are adequately protected.
‘There is overwhelming public support for a 9pm watershed on junk food adverts across all types of media.
‘If we ignore the evidence and calls for stronger marketing restrictions to uphold child rights and improve child health, the UK will not make progress on reversing its childhood obesity rates.’
In the UK, advertising of high fat, salt and sugar foods is banned on dedicated children’s television channels and also around programmes whose audience is 25 per cent under-16s.
In 2017 the Government introduced self-regulatory rules applying to traditional and online non-broadcast media, such as magazines, cinema billboards near schools, social media platforms and apps.
Campaigners argue that existing regulations around junk food advertising introduced in 2007 for television and in 2017 for non-broadcast formats have significant loopholes.
Regulations only apply to only apply to programmes, films or websites considered to be ‘of particular appeal’ to children.
This means young people are still exposed to adverts when they see other content on TV and online, the campaigners said.
Last year, the Government opened a consultation on broader broadcast and online marketing restrictions.
Campaigners, doctors and politicians previously welcomed the announcement of a proposed advertising ban before 9pm.
Cancer Research UK looked into the effects of junk food advertising in 2018.
They found every additional hour children spent watching TV was linked to a 21 per cent increased chance of buying food they’d seen advertised.
And previous research showed that every 4.4 minutes of food advertising was linked to children eating 60 more calories a day.
Eating as little as 46 extra calories each day could lead to excess weight, the researchers added.
WHAT IS OBESITY? AND WHAT ARE ITS HEALTH RISKS?
Obesity is defined as an adult having a BMI of 30 or over.
A healthy person’s BMI – calculated by dividing weight in kg by height in metres, and the answer by the height again – is between 18.5 and 24.9.
Among children, obesity is defined as being in the 95th percentile.
Percentiles compare youngsters to others their same age.
For example, if a three-month-old is in the 40th percentile for weight, that means that 40 per cent of three-month-olds weigh the same or less than that baby.
Around 58 per cent of women and 68 per cent of men in the UK are overweight or obese.
The condition costs the NHS around £6.1billion, out of its approximate £124.7 billion budget, every year.
This is due to obesity increasing a person’s risk of a number of life-threatening conditions.
Such conditions include type 2 diabetes, which can cause kidney disease, blindness and even limb amputations.
Research suggests that at least one in six hospital beds in the UK are taken up by a diabetes patient.
Obesity also raises the risk of heart disease, which kills 315,000 people every year in the UK – making it the number one cause of death.
Carrying dangerous amounts of weight has also been linked to 12 different cancers.
This includes breast, which affects one in eight women at some point in their lives.
Among children, research suggests that 70 per cent of obese youngsters have high blood pressure or raised cholesterol, which puts them at risk of heart disease.
Obese children are also significantly more likely to become obese adults.
And if children are overweight, their obesity in adulthood is often more severe.
As many as one in five children start school in the UK being overweight or obese, which rises to one in three by the time they turn 10.
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