Children lured by junk-food honey trap

Jan 21 2008 Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail

CHILDREN are being cyber-stalked by junk food companies hoping to create demand for their products, a leading charity today claims.

The British Heart Foundation said that three-quarters of parents in Wales are unaware junk food manufacturers are using internet games to target children.

The claims come as the charity and the Children’s Food Campaign have proposed a “revolutionary” regulatory system, which would impose the world’s strictest safeguards on marketing unhealthy foods and drinks to children.

And it follows research which found that children no longer regard junk food as a treat but as part of their daily diet.

Delyth Lloyd, the British Heart Foundation Wales’ public affairs manager, said, “Junk-food manufacturers are laying a multi-million-pound honeytrap for children.

“They are luring kids into their online playgrounds or stalking them on food packaging at the breakfast table.”

According to the British Heart Foundation and Children’s Food Campaign report, Protecting Children, which is published today, manufacturers are increasingly using games, social networking sites and text messaging to market their products.

The report cites the Irn-Bru website which features a “wacky” game called Gasping Grannies. The object of the game is to catapult giant cans of the drink at a suitcase.

Protecting Children said, “The humour on this site is aimed at children, to get them to associate the high sugar drink with being cool.”

It is thought that one-in-eight children have played a game on a food or drink company’s website.

The report also said McDonald’s has recently launched a £2.7m advertising campaign promoting its chicken legend sandwich on O2 and Vodafone networks.

The charities claim that asking children to text answers to a competition is a means of obtaining their personal details, which can then be used to contact them about the next “junk-food promotion”.

And the report warns that marketing techniques commonly used in the US – including advertisers placing their messages in schools, providing school canteens and paying to have their products featured in video games – could be heading to the UK.

Richard Watts, Children’s Food Campaign co-ordinator and author of the report, said, “The current system of self-regulation is clearly not fit for purpose in the 21st century.

“It is designed to prevent dishonest claims, not to improve children’s health.

“Properly enforced statutory rules are the only way to protect our children from junk food marketing.”

The British Heart Foundation’s Food4Thought survey found that 86% of Welsh parents are in favour of further regulation on junk food and drink advertising.

The proposals put forward by the British Heart Foundation and the Children’s Food Campaign would cover all forms of marketing, including food and drink packaging, which often features games or celebrity endorsement, and online activity.

Ms Lloyd said, “These regulations are a vital prerequisite to enable any government strategy on childhood obesity to be effective.

“They have the potential to transform the supermarket experience for stressed parents and change the way future generations of children view food.”

Nigel Griffiths, Labour MP for Edinburgh South, has introduced the Food Products (Marketing to Children) Bill, which would implement the Protecting Children report’s conclusions. It will be debated in Parliament – the issue is not devolved to Wales – in April.

He said, “By presenting a clear and realistic vision for how curbing the marketing of unhealthy food products to children can be implemented, this report underlines the responsibility we have to act.

“The Bill will provide an opportunity for MPs to begin in earnest the fight back against the childhood obesity that has arisen out of our junk food-obsessed culture.”