Proposal #12: Ban advertising of junk food to children

By Richard Watts

It is no exaggeration to say that our children’s diets are in crisis. 92% of children currently consume too much saturated fat, 86% consume too much sugar, and 72% consume too much salt. 96% do not eat enough fruit and vegetables.

The Chief Medical Officer has compared the crisis in children’s diets to a health ‘time bomb‘ which must be defused.

The most obvious symptom of this crisis is the rise in childhood obesity. One in three children is now obese or overweight. Government studies now predict that the majority of children will be overweight or obese by 2050.

Poor diets also have a range of other health consequences. Already 70,000 people die prematurely every year from diet-related diseases like type-2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Distinguished scientists have warned that, for the first time in more than a century, life expectancy may fall with the real prospect that parents may outlive their children. And, of course, those who earn the least are worst hit because cheap, heavily processed, food tends to be the most unhealthy.

Alan Johnson compared the obesity epidemic to climate change because of its potential over the decades to fundamentally change the way our society functions. If, as the Government’s figures suggest, it will become normal for people retire through ill health in their 50s and then die in their 60s (after a lot of expensive medical treatment) we simply cannot sustain a thriving economy or the kind of public services we value.

So what can be done? Obesity and diet-related ill health is a complex issue and there is no single ‘silver bullet’ that will solve the problem. But tackling junk food advertising is a vital first step. Studies into the effects of junk food marketing shows that it works directly by influencing children’s food preferences, and also -more powerfully – indirectly by influencing what family and friends consider to be a ‘normal’ diet. It is said that more three year olds recognise the McDonalds logo than know their own surname.

To date, the government’s record on protecting children from junk food marketing is mixed. To our credit we have massively improved the quality of school food, and introduced some of the toughest rules in the world aimed at junk food advertising during the hours of children’s TV.

But much more action is needed. The rules are not nearly tough enough: research by Which magazine found that 18 of the 20 commercial television programmes most watched by children were not covered by the regulations. Companies are allowed to get away with increasingly sophisticated techniques to target children (like text messages and emails designed to reach children behind their parent’s backs) because there are currently no laws at all to govern junk food marketing away from television, such as magazine advertising or websites.

That’s why we need a 9pm watershed for junk food adverts on television and mandatory rules to protect children from other types of junk food marketing.

Tougher advertising restrictions are effectively free to the Government, and although they will impact on industry, the TV regulator Ofcom has shown that the social benefits of a 9pm watershed massively outweighs the cost to business.

Properly protecting children from junk food marketing is also smart politics. People will support the political party they feel is on their side. A poll for the British Heart Foundation showed that parents a very worried about their own children’s diet and think junk food marketing works to persuade their children. The same poll shows that massive majority of parents support a 9pm watershed for junk adverts, with the strongest support for a ban coming from the electorally vital C1 demographic.

Protecting children from junk food marketing will make a major contribution to solving one of the main social problems of the 21st century. It will also show people that a Labour government is on their side as we try to help them to protect their kids. There are very few effective, popular and cheap policy ideas out there – this is one of them.