ARTICLES / ADVERTISING: Children's websites should stop marketing junk food to children, says watchdog

Children's websites should stop marketing junk food to children, says watchdog

Children's websites should be reclassified as adverts to stop junk food and toy companies aggressively marketing their products to young people, according to a leading consumer watchdog.

Advertising to children is very tightly regulated in magazines and television, but not on the internet.

Consumer Focus, the new super-watchdog created by the Government last month, has called for the loophole to be closed.

Ed Mayo, its chief executive, has written to trade body the Advertising Association, asking it to consider reclassifying all children's websites as adverts, to stop companies using the internet to encourage young people to pester their parents to buy junk food and toys.

Currently, a confectionery or junk food company cannot advertise its products during a children's television programme or on a children's website.

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