UK bans junk food ads aimed at children

It was bound to happen after all the alerts in the news about advertising effects on children, and how it was linked to obesity. When a paediatrician recently said that "advertisments aimed at children were a form of child abuse and should be banned" we sorta knew the bans would come soon. The Age in Australia reports that UK bans junk food ads on TV for children and the austrailians probably won't be far behind in taking similar action.

The industry won't take this lying down though, Finacial Times and the Foodnavigator both carry quotes that "The Food and Drink Federation said that similar bans in Sweden and Quebec had had no impact on levels of childhood obesity." It's worth noting that while Sweden has a total ban on all advertising aimed at children under 12 years of age, all channels that transmit from outside of Swedens borders, like TV3 and Kanal 5 that transmit from the UK, have been able to bypass this law for over ten years.

Previous articles on his subject; Inquiry into obesity 'timebomb' may lead to advertising ban Nov, 2003 and advertising does work - on obese children October 2003.