Exploitative Internet marketing fuels child obesity

EXPLOITATIVE INTERNET MARKETING FUELS CHILD OBESITY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Michael Perry]
Self-regulation in food and beverage marketing is being exploited and is failing to curb childhood obesity, research by a global obesity taskforce presented on Tuesday has found. The International Obesity Taskforce said some Internet sites that attracted children with advertising games were being used to bypass stricter advertising standards in traditional media, the 10th International Congress on Obesity in Sydney heard. The taskforce found that 85 percent of businesses advertising to children on television also had interactive Web sites for them. It said 12.2 million children had visited commercial Web sites promoting food and beverages over a three-month monitoring period in 2005. An analysis of this marketing found that food and beverage advertisers paid lip service to advertising codes of conduct. It said some Web sites pressure children to purchase before they played online games.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...