TheSoko.com - Junk Food Censorship

Keeping junk food out of your kitchen is good, but what about all the ads your kids see every day? Peter Liu tells you why this may soon no longer be a problem.

What is your stance on letting junk food trickle into your kitchen? If you have children, do you let them eat what they want or are you selective regarding their nutritional choices? No matter how you regulate it in your home, children will usually be drawn to junk food like moths to a flame. With the child obesity epidemic rising out of control, drastic measures are being attempted. A new private members bill has been introduced, with children in mind, to assist them with making better eating choices while reducing the thousands of processed junk food and drink advertisements they see day in and day out. Whether it’s mouse-shaped burgers or sugar-enhanced yogurt sticks that your children crave at the hands of corporate marketing, wouldn’t it be more beneficial for kids if ads couldn’t affect their impressionable minds?

The Consumer Protection Amendment Act

Ontario New Democrat Rosario Marchese recently introduced private members bill 53 before legislation that if passed would amend the Consumer Protection Act of 2002, banning the use of commercial food and drink advertisements shown to children under the age of 13 in Ontario. Bill 53 consists of three basic contextual criteria for determining whether ads shown are geared towards children: the nature or purpose of the product being advertised, the manner in which the ad is presented and the time or place at which the ad is presented.

But will this bill be enough to prod children further towards healthier food? Statistics Canada figures state that a third of kids between 2 and 11 are overweight, with half of those considered obese, while one in four children in Canada between the ages of 4 and 17 are obese. This advertising ban seems like a good idea in terms of stemming the flow of harmful ads towards children, but stopping traffic completely also cuts the flow going both ways. Where will beneficial food ads for children go?

The Debate

The arguments for and against bill 53 come from health officials, concerned parents, industry leaders, advertising heads and major food corporations. As the bill continues to carry and (hopefully) gain assent, the controversy over this decision will likely grow fiercer unless food corporations step in to quash the bill from shadowy corners of government.

There exists the fact that if bill 53 is passed, both harmful food ads as well as those touting nutritional items will be banned, even though children will still be bombarded by commercials and ads through the internet or satellite television. Corporate food companies argue that there is no actual proof passing bill 53 will help children lose weight, but the effects of a decrease of harmful corporate food ads on children has never really been studied either. The same food conglomerates also argue against the necessity of bill 53 because many of them have strived to stay updated and competitive in the past by reducing the unhealthy contents of their products. But cereal marketed to children with whole grain bits added but still mixed with a healthy dose of marshmallows, doesn’t seem to be a very balanced breakfast, does it?

One vocal supporter of bill 53 is Toronto’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown. He has called on Health Canada, Industry Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services to stop all food and drink ads geared towards children. He also wants city-funded services and facilities to ban ads as well. Stressing the importance of influencing what children eat, Dr. McKeown stated in an interview that dietary patterns established early in childhood usually tend to stick and diets of unhealthy food continuously eaten during childhood could make seriously harmful foundations for adult health.

In Canada, Quebec is the only province that has a ban on advertising for children, while across the pond Britain bans bad food ads during children’s television programs. While negative advertising is just one of many issues that need addressing, the nationwide ban of trans fats put forward by the NDP seems to be a much more promising idea.

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a good start

Realistically, it’s hard to imagine that curbing the flow of negative advertising will curdle the rate of childhood obesity; this is the price we pay as a developed country to live the way we do after many decades of industrial success on the ingenuity that enabled couch-potato-ism. A whole generation of issues have come together to create the obesity epidemic that we have come to accept, and this small solution in the form of bill 53 is just one more baby step towards fighting back.

Sources:
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Canada.com
CTV
The Star
The Star