A ‘Watershed’ Moment: Why it’s Prime Time to Protect Children from Junk Food Adverts

We have a childhood obesity epidemic with more than one in three children in England overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school.

Research already shows us that there is a clear link between the food and drink adverts children see and their food choices and how much they eat.

Existing rules do not protect children from seeing adverts for food and drink products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) (see glossary on p10) during the TV programmes they watch most. The rules still allow HFSS adverts to be shown during family viewing time when the number of children watching TV is at its highest.