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Summary
There is unequivocal evidence that childhood obesity is influenced by marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages
high in saturated fat, salt and/or free sugars (HFSS), and a core recommendation of the WHO Commission on Ending
Childhood Obesity (3) is to reduce children’s exposure to all such marketing. As a result, WHO has called on Member States
to introduce restrictions on marketing of HFSS to children, covering all media, including digital, and to close any regulatory
loopholes.
Children across Europe access digital media avidly, predominantly on mobile devices, generally favouring social media and
video viewing sites for mixed audiences. Brands and marketers report that digital marketing (including for HFSS foods)
amplifies advertising in traditional media, achieving greater ad attention and recall, greater brand awareness and more
positive brand attitudes, greater intent to purchase and higher product sales. Digital platforms collect extensive personal
data from Internet users to deliver behavioural advertising, specifying audiences with precision and targeting the most
vulnerable, and there is little effective regulation to protect children from this practice. The aim of digital HFSS marketing
is to engage children in emotional, entertaining experiences and to encourage them to share these experiences with their
friends. The algorithms of the major platforms give preference to less overt, longer-viewed advertisements (ads), thus
bypassing any media literacy children might have and amplifying the power of practices in traditional media.
The food, marketing and digital industries have access to extremely fine-grained analyses of children’s behaviour and
exposure to HFSS, yet external researchers are excluded from these privately held insights, which increases the power
imbalances between industry and public health. There is convincing evidence that HFSS marketing in traditional media
has detrimental effects on children’s eating and eating-related behaviour, and early studies suggest that HFSS marketing in
digital media has similar effects. Major methodological challenges remain for researchers, however, and much new transdisciplinary
work is required to identify the full extent, nature and impact of digital HFSS marketing on children.
Existing regulations are markedly insufficient to address the challenges in this field. Regulations frequently apply to predigital
media only, apply only to younger children and not to adolescents (failing to allow for adolescents’ vulnerability to
HFSS advertising) or do not address the complex challenges of supra-national regulation of global media.
Both a rights-based approach to childhood obesity and regulation of digital marketing must take into account the rights of
children to participation and protection under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (2). Thus, children
have the right to participate in digital media; and, when they are participating, they have the right to protection of their
health and privacy and not to be economically exploited. States should support parents in upholding these rights. Children’s
participation in digital media should not be predicated on receiving digital HFSS advertising, nor should it be predicated
on “devolving” consent to parents. Instead, States and supra-national actors should devise ways to ensure that children
participate in the digital world without being targeted by marketers with immersive, engaging, entertaining marketing that
has been demonstrated to be injurious to their health.
To achieve this goal, the report identifies eight key components for effective policies. States should (i) acknowledge their
duty to protect children from HFSS digital marketing with statutory regulation and (ii) extend any existing offline protection
online. Furthermore, rather than leaving commercial interests to define the parameters of marketing to children, as is
frequently the case, States should (iii) define “marketing directed at children” as well as (iv) the legal age at which marketing
to children could be permitted. The report also notes that States can (v) draw on existing legislation, regulation and
regulatory agencies in framing protection for children and proposes that States (vi) draw on existing practices for regulating
Internet content and compel private Internet platforms to remove marketing of HFSS foods. Finally, to ensure that strategies
to regulate marketing in the digital landscape are effective, the report notes that international legislation now recognizes
the need for (vii) serious sanctions, including monetary penalties, and (viii) international cross-border strategies.
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