Consumer and children's advocacy groups have successfully lobbied the government to limit junk food advertising on TV; now they're turning their focus to the Web. "We don't want to reduce junk food
advertising to kids [on TV] and then find that it has just moved to another platform," said Patti Miller, vice president of children's advocacy group Children Now and a member of the Federal
Communications Commission's Task Force on Media & Childhood Obesity.
Miller and other advocates worry that food companies are flooding Web sites frequented by young children with aggressive
ads for junk food. They point out that the proportion of overweight children under age 12 has increased fivefold in the last generation, leaving nearly 19% of kids between 6 and 11 overweight.
Meanwhile, food companies have become more clever in the way they market their products online, taking advantage of social networks and online gaming portals. As such, a recent report from
the Berkeley Media Studies Group urging lawmakers to restrict junk food advertising online will soon be presented to Congress. "With social networking, marketers are getting the kids to create the ads
and share them with their friends," said Kathryn Montgomery, an author of the report and an American University communications professor. "It is incredibly sticky and it is viral. Regulators need to
understand that."
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