<p>
	Junk food companies are using clever and manipulative digital marketing tactics to sell their products to children, a major report reveals today.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Foods laden with sugar and salt, which are contributing to high levels of obesity, are being promoted by highly inventive and furtive technology.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	But there is little effective regulation of the online world in place to protect children.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	The extent of the veiled manner in which children are being targeted is revealed in a report, &#39;Tackling Food Marketing to Children in a Digital World&#39;, published by the World Health Organisation.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Covert means include device fingerprinting - where children are tracked across various devices such as smartphones and iPads. Some use in-device cameras to record facial responses to marketing content.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Word-of-mouth marketing is used where friends make recommendations.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	The report pointed out: &quot;Children across Europe access digital media avidly, predominantly on mobile devices, generally favouring social media and video-viewing sites.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	&quot;Brands and marketers report that digital marketing amplifies advertising in traditional media, achieving greater ad attention and recall, greater intent to purchase and higher product sales.&quot;</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Children are also being tempted with more obvious methods such as gifts, games, cartoon characters and competitions.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Parents and children may even be unaware that they are subjected to this advertising.</p>
<p>
	The digital age allows the control and influence behind the promotion of these sugary and salty foods to reach a new level, including the use of geolocation data.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	This means that if people are in an area where a product is being sold that they can get real-time special offers to encourage them to &quot;walk and buy&quot;.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Analytics even allow advertisers to know a person&#39;s &quot;purchase history&quot;, even to the point of their favourite flavour of ice cream.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	The World Health Organisation is now calling for urgent action and said offline regulation of marketing these foods to children needs to be extended to all digital environments.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	The regulation should cover social media platforms, websites, game platforms and apps. It should also be flexible to incorporate new and evolving digital marketing.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	The WHO said it is also necessary to define legal age, rather than leaving it to commercial interests to do so, and a clear minimum age for digital marketing should also be set at 16 years at least.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	There needs to be effective enforcement and monitoring of digital marketing restrictions.</p>
<p>
	Regulatory agencies and policy-makers need to delegate parts of the task to internet platforms, obligating them to remove digital marketing of these foods accessible to children.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	To support effective oversight and enforcement by regulatory agencies there needs to be meaningful sanctions introduced for non-compliance.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	The health watchdog said these sanctions should apply to both the content creators and the digital platforms that are content intermediaries.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	These include the likes of Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and they should face sanctions if they fail to remove the content after they receive a notice, warned the report.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	(Published by the Irish Independent on the 4th November 2016)</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/junk-food-firms-using-manipulative-and-covert-tech-tools-to-target-children-35187310.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/junk-food-firms-using-manipulative-and-covert-tech-tools-to-target-children-35187310.html</a></p>
