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Children's online marketing harms: roundtable reflections

The DFC hosted an in-person academic roundtable on the 11th June 2024 focusing on evidence of the harmful impact of online marketing on children and young people. The discusison covered negative outcomes from marketing tactics such as obesity, body dissatisfaction, and unsafe behaviours.

Online risks to children encompass exposure to harmful content, contact, conduct, and contract, including exploitative marketing practices and the widespread monetisation of children’s data. New commercial practices include blurred relations between advertising and editorial material, influencer and sponsored content, and a profit-driven data ecosystem that underpins these practices. Many concerns arise about transparency, accountability and media-related harms. Key questions arise: What does the evidence show? What interventions are needed?

The discussion hosted by the DFC highlighted the need for improved regulation and greater awareness of advertising high fat, salt, or sugar (HFSS) food or drink products on digital platforms and services.

What follows is a summary of evidence of how exposure to food advertising has a significant impact on children's food intake and behaviours and associated concerns about children’s exposure to personalised advertising and a discussion of policy actions. Seminar participants are listed next, and we conclude with a list of relevant recent research publications.

Exposure to food advertising has a significant impact on children's food intake and behaviours

  • Recent research on how food marketing affects children's food habits meets the key criteria commonly used to evaluate causal relationships in epidemiology. The findings indicate that children are more likely to eat, choose, prefer, and ask for unhealthy foods due to exposure to food marketing, leading to poorer dietary habits. Additionally, the lack of compensation for increased snacking after exposure to food advertisements suggests a positive energy imbalance, which could potentially contribute to the development of overweight.
  • Evidence from neuroimaging studies of exposure to food marketing stimuli (vs. control) on brain activations in children and adults add strength to the notion that brain responses to food marketing are most consistently observed in areas relating to visual processing, attention, sensorimotor activity, and emotional processing.
  • The influence of advertising seems to extend across various media platforms including digital gaming, influencers, and TV. Online (‘advergame’) advertising combined with TV advertising exerted a stronger influence on children’s food consumption than TV advertising alone.
  • It's time to shift the focus of responsibility for childhood obesity from the individual to those who control the food system and the resulting environment that promotes obesity. Although there are some limitations in the evidence, especially in studying long-term outcomes and in adolescents, the overall evidence supports the need for public health policy actions to reduce children's exposure to unhealthy food advertising.

Concern raises over increased children’s exposure to personalised advertising

  • Children and teenagers are being targeted with advertising for harmful and addictive products such as gambling, alcohol, and unhealthy food online. #DigitalYouth report shows children as young as 8 years old are exposed to approximately 13 junk food ads per day, while teenagers may see an average of one instance of gambling marketing, 6 alcohol ads, and 24 junk food ads daily. Young adults aged 18 to 25 are also exposed to significant amounts of advertising for these products. Many of the ads targeted at children and young people are interactive, prompting them to engage further with the products.
  • Exposure to brand content that is seemingly endorsed by peers or web-based communities likely heightens the effects of marketing on children. Regulations to protect children from this marketing must extend beyond paid advertising to paid content in posts generated through web-based communities and influencers.
  • With the rise of AI and machine learning, research is delving into how these technologies optimise marketing strategies targeting children, raising questions about transparency, consent, and the potential for manipulation.

Policy actions should cover all forms of online marketing and prioritise a child-rights approach

  • In the context of contemporary data and marketing practices, policymakers are addressing issues affecting children and young people at the intersection of three areas: (1) marketing and branding practices (situated within the broader domain of the data-driven promotional industries and the transformation of media content); (2) policymaking (encompassing policies on digital advertising, platform and media governance, consumer protection, online safety, disinformation and more); and (3) children (encompassing the experiences, voice, influence, interests, needs and rights of children and young people).
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF[1] emphasize the importance of all states keeping a close watch on the advancements in digital technologies and how they affect the marketing of foods for infants and young children. It is essential to adjust regulatory measures to encompass new digital technologies, channels, and marketing methods.
  • The Branded Content Governance Project (2022-2025) has recommended expanding UK Online Advertising Governance. The goal is to broaden the scope of marketing communications by extending the Online Advertising Programme (OAP) to encompass all platforms and include relevant harms. This aims to ensure clear identification of advertising following the law and to address HFSS food and drink marketing within a comprehensive regulatory system for marketing communications. The project is finalizing a comprehensive report covering 32 countries on regulating and governance of branded content, including all EU countries, the UK, the USA, Canada, Mexico, and Australia. Draft country reports and other project documents, such as the "Mapping the Media-Marketing Ecology," can be found here.
  • Research conducted at the OUTLIVE Lab at the University of Ottawa emphasizes the importance of adopting a child-centred approach in future food marketing regulations within the Canadian context. It is crucial to prioritize the safeguarding of children's data and privacy in digital media through the reinforcement of federal policies. Furthermore, it is recommended that food marketing restrictions extend to all forms of digital media, including fast food applications targeted at children.
  • The U.S. government is making strides in protecting children's online privacy with the Children's and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), and reinforced FTC regulations. The COPPA Rule 2.0 prohibits online companies from gathering personal information from users under 17 without their consent. It also outlaws targeted advertising for children and teens, while introducing an eraser button for parents and kids to remove personal information from the internet. KOSA will ensure that online platforms by default activate the most protective settings for kids and offers minors options to safeguard their information. Additionally, the FTC is advocating for more stringent regulations to prevent companies like Meta from profiting from children's data, strengthening parental controls, and putting the responsibility for safeguarding children's online privacy on digital platforms rather than parents.

Emerging research to monitor food advertising

  • Food advertising significantly influences unhealthy eating, but differentiating between food and non-food content in a large number of ads is a challenging task. The EfficientNet neural network is an example of a machine learning-based method to automatically identify and classify food and non-food ad videos. It achieved 90.5% accuracy on the test database, significantly reducing the time needed for identification and classification. This method has practical implications for researchers, public health policymakers, and regulatory bodies.
  • Deakin University has developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based system, SCANNER, to detect and quantify online marketing for harmful products (junk foods, alcohol, tobacco, e-cigarettes, and gambling).
  • Another example is the development of a machine-learning system using wearable cameras to capture food exposure among school children in two urban Arab centres: Greater Beirut, in Lebanon, and Greater Tunis, in Tunisia. It employs three deep learning models to detect and classify food-related images. The work lays the groundwork for future studies using wearable technologies to document food experiences in children.

Roundtable participants

The event was chaired by Sonia Livingstone, Director of the DFC; Professor of Social Psychology, Department of Media and Communications, LSE, in collaboration with Jeffrey Chester, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and Professor Kathryn Montgomery, Research Director and Senior Strategist for the Center for Digital Democracy.

  • Kathryn Backholer, Professor of Global Public Health Policy, Co-Director, Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Australia
  • Elaine Q. Borazon, Assistant Professor, International Graduate Program of Education and Human Development (IGPEHD), National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan  
  • Emma Boyland, Professor of Food Marketing and Child Health, Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, UK
  • Ellen Helsper, Professor of Digital Inequalities, Department of Media and Communications, LSE, UK
  • Bridget Kelly Gillott, Associate Professor, University of Wollongong, Australia
  • Jonathan Hardy, Professor of Communications and Media, University of the Arts London, UK
  • Monique Potvin Kent, Assistant Dean Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Interim), School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Canada
  • Navoda Liyana Pathirana, Research Fellow, Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE), Deakin University, Australia
  • Andrea Schmidtke, Senior Legal Policy Adviser, Cancer Council Victoria, Australia
  • Mariya Stoilova, DFC Manager and Research Officer, Department of Media and Communications, LSE, UK
  • Mimi Tatlow-Golden, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies of Childhood and Youth, Open University, UK

Relevant publications

Advertising Standards Authority. (2023). Children’s exposure to age-restricted TV ads: 2023 update. https://www.asa.org.uk/static/887860cf-b990-4e51-91f1246a63986846/2023-Childrens-exposure-to-age-restricted-TV-ads-FINAL.pdf

Backholer, Kathryn (2024) #Digital Youth – How children and young people are targeted with harmful product marketing online. Melbourne: Deakin University. https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/41153/

Boyland, E. J., Nolan, S., Kelly, B., Tudur-Smith, C., Jones, A., Halford, J. C., & Robinson, E. (2016). Advertising as a cue to consume: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of acute exposure to unhealthy food and nonalcoholic beverage advertising on intake in children and adults. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 103(2), 519–533. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.115.120022

Boyland, E., Backholer, K., Potvin Kent, M., Bragg, M. A., Sing, F., Karupaiah, T., & Kelly, B. (2024). Unhealthy Food and Beverage Marketing to Children in the Digital Age: Global Research and Policy Challenges and Priorities. Annual Review of Nutrition. doi:10.1146/annurev-nutr-062322-014102

Boyland, E., Maden, M., Coates, A. E., Masterson, T. D., Alblas, M. C., Bruce, A. S., & Roberts, C. A. (2023). Food and non‐alcoholic beverage marketing in children and adults: A systematic review and activation likelihood estimation meta‐analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Obesity Reviews, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13643

Boyland, E., McGale, L., Maden, M., Hounsome, J., Boland, A., & Jones, A. (2022). Systematic review of the effect of policies to restrict the marketing of foods and non‐alcoholic beverages to which children are exposed. Obesity Reviews, 23(8). https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13447

Boyland, E., McGale, L., Maden, M., Hounsome, J., Boland, A., Angus, K., & Jones, A. (2022). Association of food and nonalcoholic beverage marketing with children and adolescents’ eating behaviors and health. JAMA Pediatrics, 176(7), e221037. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.1037

Chester, J. (2022) Despite Flurry of New Safety Features, Social Media Platforms Still Not Doing Enough to Protect Children, CDD Report Finds. Center For Digital Democracy https://democraticmedia.org/reports/despite-flurry-of-new-safety-features-social-media-platforms-still-not-doing-enough-to-protect-children-cdd-report-finds

Elbassuoni, S., Ghattas, H., Ati, J. E., Zoughby, Y., Semaan, A., Akl, C., Trabelsi, T., Talhouk, R., Gharbia, H. B., Shmayssani, Z., & Mourad, A. (2023). Capturing children food exposure using wearable cameras and deep learning. PLOS Digital Health, 2(3), e0000211. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000211

Elbassuoni, S., Ghattas, H., Ati, J. E., Zoughby, Y., Semaan, A., Akl, C., Trabelsi, T., Talhouk, R., Gharbia, H. B., Shmayssani, Z., & Mourad, A. (2023b). Capturing children food exposure using wearable cameras and deep learning. PLOS Digital Health, 2(3), e0000211. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000211

Evans, R. K., Christiansen, P., Finlay, A., Jones, A., Maden, M., & Boyland, E. (2023). A systematic review and meta‐analysis of the effect of digital game‐based or influencer food and non‐alcoholic beverage marketing on children and adolescents: Exploring hierarchy of effects outcomes. Obesity Reviews, 24(12). https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13630

Evans, R., Christiansen, P., Masterson, T., Barlow, G., & Boyland, E. (2024). Food and non-alcoholic beverage marketing via Fortnite streamers on Twitch: A content analysis. Appetite, 195, 107207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2024.107207

Goldman, J. (2023, May 4). FTC proposes ban on Facebook monetizing children’s data. EMARKETER. https://www.emarketer.com/content/ftc-proposes-ban-on-facebook-monetizing-children-s-data

Hardy, J., MacRury, I., Nuñez-Gomez, P., Rangel, C., Kubicka, H., Sanchez-Rebato Valiente, C., … Establés, M. (2024, June 25). Mapping the Media-Marketing Ecology (Branded Content Governance Project, June 2024). University of the Arts London. https://doi.org/10.25441/arts.26096632.v1

Jaichuen, N., Vandevijvere, S., Kelly, B., Vongmongkol, V., Phulkerd, S., & Tangcharoensathien, V. (2018). Unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverage advertising on children’s, youth and family free-to-air and digital television programmes in Thailand. BMC Public Health, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5675-3

Jaichuen, N., Vongmongkol, V., Suphanchaimat, R., Sasiwatpaisit, N., & Tangcharoensathien, V. (2019). Food marketing in Facebook to Thai Children and Youth: An assessment of the efficacy of Thai regulations. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(7), 1204. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16071204

Kelly, B., Backholer, K., Boyland, E., Kent, M. P., Bragg, M. A., Karupaiah, T., & Ng, S. (2023). Contemporary Approaches for Monitoring Food Marketing to Children to Progress Policy actions. Current Nutrition Reports, 12(1), 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-023-00450-7

Kelly, B., Bosward, R., & Freeman, B. (2021). Australian Children’s Exposure to, and engagement with, Web-Based Marketing of food and drink brands: Cross-sectional observational study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(7), e28144. https://doi.org/10.2196/28144

Kent, M. P., Bagnato, M., Amson, A., Remedios, L., Pritchard, M., Sabir, S., Gillis, G., Pauzé, E., Vanderlee, L., White, C., & Hammond, D. (2024). #junkfluenced: the marketing of unhealthy food and beverages by social media influencers popular with Canadian children on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-024-01589-4

Kent, M. P., Pauzé, E., Roy, E., De Billy, N., & Czoli, C. (2019). Children and adolescents’ exposure to food and beverage marketing in social media apps. Pediatric Obesity, 14(6). https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12508

Lima-Strong, C. (2024, July 9). In a first, federal regulators ban messaging app from hosting minors. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/07/09/ftc-bans-kids-ngl-messaging-app/

Livingstone, S.  and Rahali, M. (2022) #SponsoredAds: monitoring influencer marketing to young audiences. Media Policy Briefs (23). London School of Economics and Political Science, http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/113644

Livingstone, S. (2009) Debating children’s susceptibility to persuasion – where does fairness come in? A commentary on the Nairn and Fine versus Ambler debate. International Journal of Advertising, 28(1): 2-6. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/48967/

Livingstone, S., and Helsper, E. J. (2006) Does advertising literacy mediate the effects of advertising on children? A critical examination of two linked research literatures in relation to obesity and food choice. Journal of Communication, 56: 560-584. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/1018/

Maksi, S. J., Keller, K. L., Dardis, F., Veechi, M., Freeman, J., Evans, R. K., Boyland, E., & Masterson, T. D. (2024). The food and beverage cues in digital marketing model: special considerations of social media, gaming, and livestreaming environments for food marketing and eating behavior research. Frontiers in Nutrition, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2023.1325265

Montgomery, K. and Chester (2024). Regulating the Digital Obesogenic Ecosystem. Center For Digital Democracy. https://democraticmedia.org/reports/regulating-the-digital-obesogenic-ecosystem

Nieto, C., Espinosa, F., Valero‐Morales, I., Boyland, E., Kent, M. P., Tatlow‐Golden, M., Ortiz‐Panozo, E., & Barquera, S. (2023). Digital food and beverage marketing appealing to children and adolescents: An emerging challenge in Mexico. Pediatric Obesity, 18(7). https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.13036

Norman, J. A., Kelly, B., McMahon, A. T., Boyland, E. J., Baur, L. A., Chapman, K., King, L., Hughes, C., & Bauman, A. E. (2018). Sustained impact of energy-dense TV and online food advertising on children’s dietary intake: a within-subject, randomised, crossover, counter-balanced trial. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-018-0672-6

Norman, J., Kelly, B., Boyland, E., & McMahon, A. (2016). The Impact of marketing and advertising on food behaviours: Evaluating the evidence for a causal relationship. Current Nutrition Reports, 5(3), 139–149. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-016-0166-6

Potvin Kent, M., Mulligan, C., Gillis, G., Remedios, L., & Parsons, C. (2023). Fast Food & Dine-In Restaurant Apps and Children’s Privacy: Exploring how children’s data and privacy are being protected on the mobile applications of top Canadian fast food and dine-in restaurants. https://www.heartandstroke.ca/-/media/pdf-files/advocacy/monique-potvin-kent-privacy-report-en.pdf

Prathapan, S., Wijewardena, K., & Low, W. Y. (2015). Content analysis of food and beverages advertisements targeting children and adults on television in Sri Lanka. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 28(1_suppl), 86S-92S. https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539515620481

Rodrigues, M. B., Ferreira, V. P., Claro, R. M., Martins, A. P. B., Avila, S., & Horta, P. M. (2023). Revolutionising food advertising monitoring: a machine learning-based method for automated classification of food videos. Public Health Nutrition, 26(12), 2717–2727. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980023002446

Scully, M., Jinnette, R., Le, L., Martin, J., & Schmidtke, A. (2024). Compliance of Australian commercial foods for young children (<36 months) with an international nutrient and promotion profile model. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 48(3), 100158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anzjph.2024.100158

Singer, N. (2023, December 20). U.S. Regulators Propose New Online Privacy Safeguards for Children. The New York Times.  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/20/technology/ftc-regulation-children-online-privacy.html

Smith, R., Kelly, B., Yeatman, H., Johnstone, S., Baur, L., King, L., Boyland, E., Chapman, K., Hughes, C., & Bauman, A. (2019). Skin Conductance Responses Indicate Children are Physiologically Aroused by Their Favourite Branded Food and Drink Products. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(17), 3014. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173014

Tatlow-Golden, M. (2024). Digital Food Marketing Research: Global Trends. Center For Digital Democracy. https://democraticmedia.org/reports/new-report-growing-evidence-of-digital-food-marketing-s-harmful-impact-on-young-people

Tatlow‐Golden, M., Jewell, J., Zhiteneva, O., Wickramasinghe, K., Breda, J., & Boyland, E. (2021b). Rising to the challenge: Introducing protocols to monitor food marketing to children from the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. Obesity Reviews, 22(S6). https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13212

U.S. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts. (2024, July 30). Senators Markey and Cassidy celebrate Senate passage of Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Legislation COPPA 2.0. Edward Markey. https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-markey-and-cassidy-celebrate-senate-passage-of-children-and-teens-online-privacy-protection-legislation-coppa-20

World Health Organization (2023). Guidance on regulatory measures aimed at restricting digital marketing of breast-milk substitutes. Geneva: World Health Organization  https://who.int/publications/i/item/9789240084490

World Health Organization. (2024) Restricting digital marketing in the context of tobacco, alcohol, food and beverage. Geneva: World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/97892400772490

[1] The report delves into the technical and legal considerations for regulating digital marketing in the context of the International Code for the Marketing of breast milk substitutes but could be applied more broadly to other commodities.

Text authors: Laura Betancourt-Basallo

Image credit: Pexels, Negative space

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