News • Children's Food Campaign
Children's Groups Tell Advertisers: 'Protect All Children From Junk Food Marketing'
Leading UK children's groups, including The Children's Society, NCB and the Children's Food Campaign, have today called upon the Committee of Advertising Practice to change its code of practice so that all children are properly protected from junk food advertising.
The letter signed by six organisations representing UK children's rights states: “We believe that all children and young people under the age of 16 have a right to be protected from unhealthy food marketing“ and calls for amendments which remove the current loophole.
Christine Haigh, coordinator of the Children's Food Campaign, which coordinated the letter, said: “Given the poor diets of many of the UK's children, and the rising tide of childhood obesity, it is vital that all children are protected from advertisers aggressively promoting junk food.”
She added: “It is ridiculous that UK law protects children up to the age of 16 from junk food advertising during children's television programmes, yet marketers have a free-for-all when it comes to other media, such as the internet and text messaging.”
While the Code provides some protection to children below the age of 12 from marketing of unhealthy products, it contains loopholes, which exclude older children from such protection. By contrast, mandatory regulation, enforced by government body Ofcom, protects all children up to the age of 16 from unhealthy food advertising during children's television programmes.
ENDS
For further information please contact: Christine Haigh, Children's Food Campaign Joint Coordintaor, Sustain. Mob: 07870 577934 or tel: 0203 5596 777.
Notes to editors:
- The letter to the Committee on Advertising Practice was signed by NCB, The Children's Society, Alliance for Childhood, Child Growth Foundation, British Association for Community Child Health and the Children's Food Campaign.
- The letter responds to a twelve-week consultation on the Code's content, which closes today.
- The Children's Food Campaign works to improve children's health and well-being through better food - and food teaching - in schools, and protecting children from junk food marketing. We are supported by over 300 national and local organisations and 12,000 members of the public. The Children's Food Campaign is coordinated by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming and is funded by the British Heart Foundation. For more details see https://www.sustainweb.org/childrensfoodcampaign/
- 'A Good Childhood', the final report from the Good Childhood Inquiry, managed by The Children's Society and published by Penguin, highlighted the damaging effects advertising can have on children's health and well-being and recommended that advertising of unhealthy food to children is far more tightly regulated. The report found that in 2004 the government was spending £7 million a year on advertising in favour of healthy eating, while the food industry was spending £743 million on advertising, in favour of unhealthy eating.
- NCB's mission is to advance the well-being of all children and young people across every aspect of their lives. As a membership and infrastructure support agency for the children's sector in England and Northern Ireland, NCB provides essential information on policy, research and best practice for our members and the members of our wide range of partnership bodies which operate under our charitable status and are based in our London headquarters.
For further information visit http://www.ncb.org.uk/
For further information on this release contact:
Clare Quarrell, Anna Tombs, Clare Lilley - NCB Media Office
Tel: 020 7843 6044/6045/6047/07721 097033
Email: media@ncb.org.uk
Published Friday 19 June 2009
Children's Food Campaign: Better food and food teaching for children in schools, and protection of children from junk food marketing are the aims of Sustain's high-profile Children's Food Campaign. We also want clear food labelling that can be understood by everyone, including children.
