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Time to pester the pests
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday March 26, 2011
Parents have the power to wage war on junk-food ads. When it comes to resisting pleas from kids to buy junk food, we should be as tough as we are about wearing seat belts, dietitian and parent Kate di Prima says."We don't give in to kids when they have a tantrum and refuse to wear seatbelts - so why then give in when they have a tantrum because you won't buy them sweets?" di Prima says.There's nothing new about kids pestering parents to buy them stuff. What's different now is that there's more stuff available and it's marketed to children in so many different ways, a senior lecturer in nutrition and dietetics at Adelaide's Flinders University, Kaye Mehta, says."Kids are becoming immersed in a branded environment," she says. "The main investment of food manufacturers used to be in TV. Now it's shifting to 'advergames' - branded games on the internet - which parents might not be aware of but which become viral marketing if kids' email links to each other."As for supermarket shopping, Mehta's research has found that of 157 product lines marketed to children, 76 per cent of them are unhealthy.Trawl through the supermarket and you get her drift. There are packages featuring cartoon characters that are clearly marketed to kids and will be shoo-ins for red symbols if the proposed traffic light labelling system goes ahead. Does anyone really want kids eating breakfast cereal with 38 per cent sugar or 690 milligrams of sodium per 100 grams? Pitching this stuff at kids is just wrong.Sure, there is the argument that parents take control of their kids. But as a nutritionist with the Cancer Council NSW, Kathy Chapman, points out, just because parents are in control of teaching children about road safety, it doesn't mean we don't have pedestrian crossings.Mehta says if parents want tougher regulations on food marketing to kids, they need to do some pestering themselves. "Politicians need to hear from parents that they want change," she says. "Parents currently take responsibility for refusing children's pestering for highly marketed junk foods. Instead they should put the responsibility where it lies - with arrangements between government and industry about what's permissible for children to be exposed to."If we want to prevent childhood obesity, we shouldn't expose children to junk food marketing."One way for parents to bite back is via Junkbusters, a website set up by the Cancer Council to help consumers protest against worrying instances of food-marketing to kids. You fill in the details of your complaint online and Junkbusters then lets you know if the concern is justified - and helps you make a formal complaint if it is.As for pester-proofing on the home front, di Prima reduces her children's exposure to marketing by minimising how much commercial TV they watch and avoiding places like McDonald's, where she knows there'll be the lure of toys offered with Happy Meals.But not everyone thinks avoiding TV ads is the best way to go."You can't cocoon children from marketing that targets them - you have to try to teach them how to deal with it," says Justine Hodge, former manager of the Parents' Jury, which advocates a better food environment for children. When ads appear on TV, her approach has been to talk about them to her son and explain the tactics used to sell products.Resist temptationTo help children make healthy eating decisions, the Cancer Council makes the following recommendations:- Avoid eating junk food yourself.- Don't automatically turn on the TV when you get home or leave it on as background noise.- Limit children's small-screen time (including internet and computer games) to less than two hours daily.- Tape children's favourite shows and fast-forward through the ad breaks later or use the mute button during ads.- Ensure children understand that personal information they provide online may not be secure. This includes registering in children's sections of food companies' websites or competitions. Companies may use this information to target your child for future marketing.
© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald