University wants ban on harmful ads to children - gambling, alcohol, junk food

University of Otago researchers want an end to outdoor marketing of gambling, alcohol and junk food to protect children. Photo / NZME

On an average day, New Zealand children are exposed to seven gambling advertisements, four and a half alcohol ads and 27 junk food ads.

Now, University of Otago researchers are urgently calling for an end to outdoor marketing of gambling, alcohol and junk food to protect children from the harm they can cause.

Senior author and Wellington campus public health head Prof Louise Signal said 122 Wellington 12-year-olds wore body cameras for four days, which took photos every seven seconds, recording how often children were exposed to harmful product marketing as they went about their daily lives.

The cameras revealed the children were exposed to seven gambling advertisements a day (half on shop fronts alone), four and a half alcohol advertisements a day (a third of which were also on shop fronts), and 27 junk food advertisements a day (a third of which were in outdoor public spaces).

For every hour children were in public outdoor settings, they spent 70 per cent of that time in the street, 13 per cent in outdoor recreation settings and 13 per cent in outdoor sports settings.

Prof Signal said children were being exposed to "harmful" marketing across many settings — not just those conceived as "child places" such as playgrounds or around schools.

Marketing also clustered in harmful "hot spots" near city centres where stores and restaurants were common — here, children frequently encountered signs on streets and shop fronts marketing alcohol, gambling and junk food.

Alcohol advertisements. Photo / Supplied

Billboards across the community also played a role, she said.

"It was clear there were few settings children could escape these harmful marketing messages, so comprehensive action is needed.

"Clearly, the current national level industry self-regulation of marketing through the Advertising Standards Authority fails to protect our children."

Signal said the World Health Organisation had called for government regulation of such marketing to protect children's rights.

"Vaping marketing was banned in Aotearoa in 2021 through national legislation, and tobacco marketing has been banned for years.

"Children in this study reveal the urgent need for such a ban on alcohol, gambling and junk food marketing as well."

The study showed that if marketing of alcohol, gambling and junk food was banned within 400m of a bus stop, children's exposure would be reduced by 86 per cent, followed by bans in residential areas by 59 per cent and by 42 per cent around schools.

She said newly elected councils would have a real opportunity to remove harmful product marketing from their communities, as well as take a role in reducing the number of alcohol and gambling outlets, and associated marketing.