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By Monique Potvin Kent
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We’re risking our kids’s well being by leaving social media out of deliberate federal rules to restrict advertising and marketing of unhealthy meals and drinks.
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“inform me ur Halloween costume”
This tweet was posted on Halloween by one among Canada’s largest fast-food chains to their greater than 168,000 Twitter followers. It was a follow-up to a tweet a couple of particular meal deal for youths.
Given its fashion, spelling and request, what age group do you assume it’s focusing on? There’s just one reply in fact – Canada’s youth.
Such posts will not be one-offs on a preferred youngsters’s vacation. Our new research of Canadian social media in 2020 presents some alarming statistics.
The highest 40 food and drinks manufacturers in meals classes ceaselessly focused to youngsters and adolescents in Canada tweeted a complete of 30,294 instances (greater than 80 per day on common) with their tweets being seen an estimated 12.5 billion instances. Greater than 99 per cent of those social media posts had been from main fast-food eating places.
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When you assume youngsters aren’t amongst that social media viewers, take into account some analysis has proven that over 40 per cent of Canadian youngsters beneath the age of 4 have entry to a smartphone — and by age 15 the speed is 80 per cent.
As for utilizing social media, a 2015 report discovered one-third of kids in grades 4 to six reported having a Fb account, regardless of age restrictions on the web site. And 44 per cent of Ontario youngsters reported utilizing social media two to 4 hours a day. One other 20 per cent reported utilizing social media for 5 or extra hours per day.
These numbers might have truly elevated for the reason that analysis was carried out, notably because the pandemic drove everybody to their digital gadgets.
Social media advertising and marketing campaigns rely closely on encouraging folks to create and share posts about manufacturers with their networks via hashtags, competitions and different interactive options. That is referred to as user-generated content material and it’s particularly influential as a result of messages come from trusted mates, household or function fashions.
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In our research, funded by Coronary heart & Stroke, we present in only one yr, the highest 40 meals and beverage manufacturers in Canada had been talked about in user-generated content material 16.9 million instances in Canada on Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr and YouTube.
Tweets alone in regards to the prime 40 manufacturers had been probably seen an estimated 491 billion instances, with fast-food eating places dominating, adopted by sugary drink manufacturers.
The inescapable conclusion is our children are being bombarded every single day with enticements to eat unhealthy meals and drinks.
Many youngsters are succumbing to the temptation, resulting in poor dietary consumption, well being points now and later in life and shortened life spans. The ubiquity of unhealthy meals advertising and marketing on social media is hurting our children and including to the strains on our well being system.
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The present “wild west” of social media advertising and marketing of unhealthy meals and drinks must be reined in as half the federal authorities’s deliberate new rules limiting advertising and marketing of such merchandise to youngsters beneath 13 years outdated.
Quebec has had such restrictions in place for youngsters beneath 13 since 1980.
The enactment of those restrictions is lengthy overdue, but when social media will not be included the rules will lose a really massive a part of their effectiveness. Permitting such a loophole could also be exploited by business and onslaught of selling on social media might truly improve in consequence.
Youth are a captive viewers on social media. The meals and beverage business is aware of this and are already devoting a big a part of advertising and marketing expenditures to internet advertising.
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We all know from constructive experiences in different jurisdictions, together with Quebec, restrictions on promoting to youngsters works. However it’s important that rules are complete or the advertising and marketing bombardment will proceed.
The federal authorities introduced the Wholesome Consuming Technique as one among its key commitments quickly after it took workplace in 2015, however we’re nonetheless ready for these very important restrictions on unhealthy meals advertising and marketing to be enacted.
Since that point, total vastly fashionable social media platforms have been born and now attain tens of millions of Canadians on prime of the already fashionable platforms included on this analysis.
We urgently want enactment of those total restrictions — and so they should embody social media.
Monique Potvin Kent is an affiliate professor within the College of Ottawa’s Faculty of Epidemiology and Public Well being and program director of Grasp of Public Well being program.
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