The Healthy Kids Act would empower the Federal Communications Commission to limit the amount of advertising for food/drinks with certain levels of trans fat, sugars and sodium to two minutes an hour on weekends and three on weekdays. The proposed legislation would further allow the FCC to fully ban ads for foods that "do not contribute to a healthful diet for children and adolescents and the consumption of which is discouraged." Which foods/beverages would be affected? That would be left to the Federal Trade Commission. Ads targeting kids for products in this realm would be deemed an unfair trade practice. The FTC would further have rights to determine the age range for which kids should not be exposed to certain advertising. Jaffe said it could include 12- to-19-year-olds, which might impact ads on programming "directed to teens and young adults." The bill also employs a third federal arm, the Health and Human Services department. HHS would have the power to develop guidelines for food/beverage ads that take into account children/ adolescents' "emotional vulnerability ... (and) cognitive ability to distinguish between commercial and non-commercial content." Reps Jim Moran (D-VA) and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) introduced the legislation and wrote in the bill that the industry has failed at self-regulation.
