Cut Out the Loopholes in Kids' TV
Advertisers of junk food are exploiting loopholes in Television Standards to advertise high fat and high sugar foods to vulnerable youngsters, nutritionists have warned.
In a letter published in the latest edition of the Medical Journal of Australia, Ms Bridget Kelly, Public Health Dietitian at the NSW Centre for Overweight and Obesity and the NSW Centre for Public Health Nutrition, has called for codes of practice governing television advertising to Australian children to be clarified and tightened.
Ms Kelly and her colleague, Josephine Chau of the NSW Centre for Physical Activity and Health, say television codes must be amended to protect children from junk food advertising.
Ms Kelly and Ms Chau examined the Children's Television Standards (CTS) code, presided over by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, for any breaches by food advertisers over one week on three Sydney commercial TV channels.
In 357 hours of television, they counted 14 breaches of just one section of the CTS. Eighty per cent of these breaches were for high fat and/or sugar foods.
"We found that food marketers circumvented or exploited a loophole in clause 26 times during the study week," says Ms Kelly.
"Australia has one of the highest levels of food advertising on television in the developed world, with most advertisements being for foods that are high in fat, sugar and/or salt.
"There is a highly plausible link between television food advertising and overweight and obesity.
"It is important to examine whether current regulations protect Australian children from excessive exposure to advertisements for unhealthy food on television."
Ms Kelly says the three current regulatory codes for children's TV lack precise definitions and allow for subjective interpretation. This makes the regulations difficult to enforce.
"There is a need to improve the clarity of the code, to actively monitor advertisements, to adopt clear procedures for complaints and investigation of alleged breaches, and to impose penalties for confirmed breaches," she says.
The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.
The original letter to the editor can be viewed at www.mja.com.au.