Call for Regulation After Study Links Online Marketing and Childhood Obesity

[mandy]

A new study highlights ways companies use the Web to promote unhealthy foods to youngsters and asks regulators to step in...

For parents trying to promote healthy eating habits, these online sales pitches are making mealtime no picnic, according to a new study. Researchers from the Center for Digital Democracy and American University released a report May 17 detailing how low-nutrient foods are marketed online to kids and teens using everything from avatars in virtual worlds to instant-messaging chat tools, and from Web sweepstakes to interactive games. The report's authors suggest that a rise in such marketing on sites where kids are spending larger chunks of time is contributing to childhood obesity and diet-related health problems by encouraging kids to make poor food choices...

full article: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/c...op+stories

the study: http://digitalads.org/documents/digiMarketingFull.pdf
website: http://www.digitalads.org/

[BellisimaJ.]

The report's authors suggest that a rise in such marketing on sites where kids are spending larger chunks of time is contributing to childhood obesity and diet-related health problems by encouraging kids to make poor food choices...

That may be, but there is much more to it than that. Too much sitting in front of a tv or a computer, the lack of phys ed requirements in schools, the easy access to fast junk food,  the example of parents, who in this country are overwhelmingly obese, all contribute much more, IMO .