The Icelandic state broadcasting system, RÚV, recently made the decision to stop airing television commercials during times that children are most likely to be watching, at weekends and after 6 pm in the evenings.

New consumer regulations, a result of three years of negotiation between consumer rights groups, child rights advocates, retailers, advertisers and the government, also recently came into place.

The new rules, which include that candy, soda and chips should neither be sold near cash registers nor be in the viewing area of children, were adopted in Iceland on March 15 to coincide with World Consumer Rights Day.

Consumer groups across the globe used the day to call on governments to take tougher action to protect children from the influence of junk food marketing.

Removing candy bars from checkouts is a start. Children don’t need any help being persuaded to want foods high in salt, sugar and fat.

It goes without saying that many, if not most ads during children’s programs are for junk food?kids’ television programs are sandwiched between food ads—and limiting children’s exposure to marketing of sugary, salty and fatty foods is a step in the right direction.

Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir, administrator of the postgraduate course of health economics at the University of Iceland, said in 2007 that Iceland was suffering from an obesity epidemic and that the situation was most dire among children and teenagers.

Ásgeirsdóttir warned that a failure to improve the situation would cost the healthcare system an extra ISK 2 billion (USD 32 million, EUR 21 million at the time of the report) annually. While childhood obesity rates are lower in Iceland than in other European countries, 21 percent of the nation’s children are overweight.

But, the situation in my home country of Australia is even graver. About two thirds of children are considered overweight and one third obese. When it comes to adults, a whopping 67.5 percent of men and 50.7 percent of women are either overweight or obese, earning Australia the honorable title of the “the world’s fattest nation.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that a link exists between obesity and junk food advertising on children’s television. A ban on the advertising of junk food has long been called for in Australia but recent discussions in the Senate earlier this month indicate that the government continues to be unwilling to support the bill.

According to statistics, Australia has the greatest amount of junk food ads per hour of television and the Dietitians Association of Australia reports that about 30 percent of all ads during kid’s television viewing time are for food and drinks, more than three quarters of which are for junk food.

Millions of dollars has been spent on encouraging children to exercise more and improve their eating habits.

Even radical proposals such as having towns with a high proportion of overweight people compete for healthy status in national weight loss contests have been suggested, but the fact remains that television advertising is a powerful force.

The question is whether banning it will help curb obesity levels.

Junk food advertising bans exist in other places, including Sweden and Quebec, although figures there show that obesity rates are similar to those of countries with no advertising restrictions. However, in my opinion, a restriction—if not a ban—on junk food advertising would only be good.

WHO says that for every USD 1 it spends on trying to improve nutrition around the world, USD 500 is spent by the food industry promoting processed foods. This translates into a clear imbalance when it comes to the presence of healthy eating campaigns and junk food advertisements.

Children are introduced to the food pyramid representing a balanced diet in schools, but then they go home and are exposed to hours of advertising telling them to eat chocolate, chips and cheerios.

Sponsorship is also a problem. In many countries, including Iceland and Australia, fast food chains and soft drink companies sponsor school sporting competitions. When I was in school “McDonald’s Days” were held to raise money for charity or for the school itself through the sale of burgers to primary school students.

It was also recently announced that the fast food giant is to sponsor an online maths tutoring program aimed at secondary school students in Australia.

What kind of message does this send? Connecting unhealthy food (although fast food chains have made some changes for the better in recent years, the bulk of their products remain unhealthy) to sport, education, exercise and charity is wrong.

There is nothing altruistic about urging children to buy burgers under the guise that they are helping some greater cause. This is simply another form of marketing.

According to WHO, 20 million children under the age of five worldwide were overweight in 2005 and the organization projects that 2.3 billion people will be overweight and 700 million obese by 2015.

According to the Coalition on Food Advertising to Children (CFAC), overweight and obese children have an 80 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese in adulthood. The associated health consequences include heart disease, diabetes and depression.

Of course it doesn’t exactly help that children watch so much television and play computer games for hours on end in the first place (23 hours of television including four hours of advertisements each week in Australia, according to CFAC) and there is no way to completely stop children’s exposure to food advertising, but any measures taken will surely help. Junk food advertising should ideally be restricted on television, and banned in schools.

The techniques used by food advertisers are nothing short of exploitative and while it is usually up to the parents to ensure good eating habits and schools to provide healthy lunch options at the canteen, persuasive advertisements only make the task more difficult.

It’s only natural that if a child sees the same advertisement for the newest, coolest, most delicious and supposedly healthy chocolate-coated breakfast cereal or snack bar over and over again while watching their favorite program they are going to nag their parents for it to be added to their morning meal or school lunch box the next day.

How about some ads promoting healthy snacks or the benefits of a healthy lifestyle?

The children’s series LazyTown, which was created by Icelander Magnús Scheving, has been praised for promoting healthy living, exercising and an appreciation for healthy food.

According to the program’s website, the show aims to motivate children to make healthy lifestyle choices through the examples by the LazyTown characters. I can’t say I’ve seen the program myself but it does sound like a change to the junk-food loving cartoon hero.

Of course banning advertising is not enough in itself, exercise is essential and parents have to want to make an effort. I cringe when I seen parents feeding their young children, especially infants, McDonald’s and Coke. Whatever happened to teaching good eating habits?

Critics argue that people should have a choice about the kind of lifestyle they want to lead. And, of course, adults should have the right to eat what they want—just like they should be entitled to smoke if they so choose, as long as it isn’t putting anyone else at risk.

But, when it comes to children, I fail to see banning junk food advertising as a restriction on freedom. Tobacco advertising and sponsorship has been banned in some countries for years and while lost advertising revenue is a genuine concern for broadcasters, ways to compensate for it must be found.

After all, obesity is currently our biggest health threat and good eating habits start early.

Zoë Robert – zoe_robert3@hotmail.com