Reducing the exposure of children and adolescents to digital marketing of unhealthy foods
- Project start date: 1 May 2022
- Project status: Completed
- Project type: Nutrition
- Discipline: Food marketing
- Author/s: Dr Mimi Tatlow-Golden, The Open University
- Collaborator/s: Prof Colette Kelly, National University of Ireland, Galway; Dr Kathryn Backholer, Deakin University; Prof Amandine Garde, University of Liverpool; Dr Celine Murrin, University College Dublin; Dr Lynsey Hollywood, Ulster University
Research objective
This project looked at digital food marketing on the island of Ireland from viewpoints of targeted children and their parents, and regulators. Desk and empirical research were complemented by consultation throughout, ensuring rigorous design and meaningful outputs including recommendations.
Outputs
Research report
- Title: Our Kids' Exposure to Unhealthy Food Marketing Online
- Date: 24 February 2026
- Summary: This report outlines the use of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on monitoring digital food marketing to children to create a multi-stage, multi-stakeholder image of the digital food marketing landscape on the island of Ireland. This study assessed digital food marketing to children and adolescents using a multi-method approach informed by World Health Organization guidance. Methods included 3 systematic searches and scoping reviews, analysis of social media food marketing on the island of Ireland, interviews and focus groups with children, parents and advertisers, and screen capture of adolescents’ actual exposure to unhealthy food marketing on social media among children on the island of Ireland. The findings show that digital food marketing, including influencer content, is a routine feature of young people’s online environments.
- Findings:
- Screen capture analysis of 38 adolescents aged 13–17 years showed that participants were exposed to an average of 15–19 clear-cut unhealthy food marketing posts per hour of social media use. This equates to approximately one marketing exposure every four minutes. Exposure varied widely, ranging from one marketing post every 30 minutes to one every 40 seconds.
- Based on reported social media use, adolescents using social media for two hours per day would be exposed to an estimated 10,950 unhealthy food marketing posts per year. Among those using social media for approximately 4.5 hours per day, estimated exposure rises to over 30,000 posts per year .
- Nutrient profiling showed that 96% of the foods that could be classified were deemed “not permitted” for marketing to children under the WHO Regional Office for Europe Nutrient Profile Model.
- Influencer marketing generated higher engagement. Adolescents spent an average of 15 seconds viewing influencer food marketing posts compared with three seconds for paid-for advertisements, and engaged with 44% of influencer posts.
- Interviews showed that children frequently responded to digital food marketing with enjoyment and appetite, while parents were largely unaware of the volume and nature of marketing their children encountered. Advertisers acknowledged that children can be reached through digital marketing despite existing restrictions and described current regulatory approaches as insufficient for digital media environments.
- Recommendations:
Based on the findings of this study and drawing on the WHO Guideline on policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing (2023), the authors propose the following recommendations for consideration.
1. Protect all children, including adolescents, from exposure to unhealthy food marketing and digital food marketing specifically.
- Prohibit the marketing of unhealthy food on all digital media to which children are exposed.
2. Ensure regulation is comprehensive.
- Regulation should address influencer and content creator marketing, going beyond disclosure requirements.
- Regulation should address brand marketing where the marketing features a brand associated with unhealthy food products, and should include “owned” social media marketing, including brand-controlled social media accounts.
- Regulation should minimise the risk of marketing migrating to other media, other spaces within the same medium, or to other age groups, including emerging and immersive digital environments.
3. Ensure regulation is mandatory.
- The very high levels of exposure identified in this study demonstrate that industry self-regulation is not working and is less effective than legally binding rules in protecting children from harmful marketing.
4. Ensure monitoring of food marketing regulation is independent, effective, efficient, and adequately resourced.
- Resources should be provided for comprehensive, regular, and independent monitoring, which assesses compliance, enforces restrictions, and informs future policy revisions.
- Nutritional information should be displayed in a standardised and accessible format to support monitoring.
- Nutrient profile models should be updated to take account of portion size, particularly for restaurant meals, ready meals, and multi-component foods.
5. Address policymakers as the key audience for the findings of this research.
6. Use the exposure data generated by this study to support strengthening of regulation at EU level.
- Use the data as evidence to ensure cross-border marketing is effectively regulated at regional level for all EU citizens.
- Share insights to inform evidence gathering and policy making at an EU level.
- Ensure that EU rules allow Member States flexibility to adopt national rules that are aligned with the WHO 2023 guideline and compatible with a human rights-based approach.
7. National governments, like Ireland, could use the discretion allowed under EU law to implement the WHO guideline and strengthen protection of children’s health and rights in Ireland.
- Work in partnership with key stakeholders with an interest in the commercial determinants of health, such as alcohol, gambling, tobacco/vaping. This is because online marketing, as an intrinsic part of the advertising-based business model of social media, contributes to various sorts of harm.
Download the report
