By Pamela Ferdinand
In an era when digital devices increasingly dominate young people’s lives, the social media industry is promoting unhealthy food consumption and behavior and contributing to the global childhood obesity epidemic, according to an international report.
The study published in BMJ Global Health in February highlights how children and teens are inundated with digital marketing for ultraprocessed foods high in sugar, salt and fat — often without realizing they’re being targeted.
From cookies and cold cereal to sugary drinks and fast food, the digital ads that young people worldwide encounter are frequent and persuasive, the researchers say.
For example, in one study that looked at 80 different reports involving nearly 20,000 children and teenagers, food ads — especially online ones — were linked to eating more unhealthy food, wanting those foods and asking parents to buy them (pester behaviors).
Another found that influencer marketing of junk food significantly increased immediate food intake among 9- to 11-year-olds, while healthy food promotions had no such effect.
Unlike traditional media, social platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram track user behavior to deliver personalized content.
And because ads can be embedded in videos, polls, games or quizzes — particularly on platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram — children often fail to recognize they’re being marketed to.
“The study found that digital marketing techniques have a near universal reach and effectively promote unhealthy food consumption which significantly influence children and adolescents’ consumption and food behavior,” the researchers say.
Social media is a commercial determinant of health like tobacco, alcohol
In the U.S., more than 95% of adolescents have a smartphone or access to one, with more than 35% reporting using one of the top five most popular social media platforms almost constantly, according to the Pew Research Center.
Similarly, in the U.K., nine in 10 children own a mobile phone by age 11. Nearly a quarter of children ages 5 to 7 also have their own phone, with more than one-third on social media.
In Australia, where legislators in November 2024 approved a ban on children under 16 from using social media, roughly 1 million teens ages 14 to 17 (91%) and more than half (54%) of children ages 10 to 13 own a mobile phone, according to a 2023 survey. One in seven (14%) children ages 6 to 9 has their own social media account.
The review comes amid emerging evidence that the social media industry acts as a commercial determinant of health that facilitates food marketing while reshaping public perceptions and advancing corporate goals.
Like other recognized commercial determinants of health like tobacco, alcohol and fossil fuels, the food industry uses similar tactics on social media to influence public health policy and sidestep regulation, the researchers say.
This includes targeting vulnerable populations, building alliances with health groups, advocating for voluntary regulation and reframing public health debates in their favor.
Australian researchers, for instance, found that ultraprocessed food industry actors used Twitter to challenge public health policies and advocate for voluntary regulation while co-opting health-related language and distorting policy narratives.
This study is also the first to explore how the industry promotes ultraprocessed products to young audiences, exacerbating health disparities and contributing to adverse health outcomes, including childhood obesity.
Childhood obesity increases the risk of developing non-communicable diseases, including Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
“The role of social media marketing in influencing high-energy intake, including bypassing cognitive awareness to shape the food environment for children and youth, is consistent with the definition of an obesogenic environment driver,” the authors say.
Adolescents encounter dozens of unhealthy food ads online every day
In this study, researchers from the U.K., Canada and New Zealand analyzed 36 peer-reviewed articles and editorials, mostly from high-income countries, published between 2000 and May 2023. They found that exposure to unhealthy food marketing on social media varies by country, age and gender.
In a self-reported study of 4,827 parents of children under 18, for example, those in Mexico and the U.S. reported greater exposure to marketing for fast food and sugary drinks while viewing digital media with their children compared with parents in Australia, Canada and the U.K. Older children and those from some countries may also be more exposed than other groups.
“As early adopters and near-ubiquitous users, with 95% using YouTube and at least 67% using TikTok, teenagers may experience the most immediate and significant harms of the social media industry’s influence on the digital food environment, such as its negative impact on both body image and eating disorders and its connection to obesity and other [non-communicable diseases],” the researchers say.
Most studies also have relied on self-reported data, meaning actual exposure may be even higher, the researchers say.
Social media platforms also often sell user data to health-harming industries, further entrenching their influence and making it harder for researchers and policymakers to monitor ad exposure, they add.
Among other findings:
- In Mexico, children saw an average of 2.7 food ads per hour on weekdays, while in Australia, teens were exposed to an average of 168 food promotions per week based on mobile device recordings, the study shows.
- Boys were more likely to encounter ads emphasizing athleticism or achievement, while girls saw more interactive content like polls and quizzes.
- In Canada, 72% of youth ages 7 to 16 were exposed to food marketing within 10 minutes of using their favorite social media apps. On that country’s most-used websites for children, more than 93% of food ads promoted items high in fat, sodium or sugar, with the most frequently advertised categories including cakes, cookies and ice cream. Researchers also estimated that children and adolescents see food marketing 30 and 189 times on average per week on social media apps, respectively.
- Food marketers quickly adapt to changing conditions — such as the COVID-19 pandemic — using relevant themes to stay visible and influential. In New Zealand, 14 of the top 20 unhealthy food and drink brands posted COVID-19-themed content during the pandemic.
- Instagram marketing tactics tended to appeal to a younger audience by using competitions and characters, compared with Facebook advertisements that tended to include competitions based on user-generated content, interactive games and apps.
Social media platforms evading effective regulation
The World Health Organization has long warned that food marketing is a public health threat that negatively affects children’s food choices, intended choices, and their dietary intake.
In July 2023, it released a new guideline that “recommends countries implement comprehensive mandatory policies to protect children of all ages from the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages that are high in saturated fatty acids, trans-fatty acids, free sugars and/or salt (HFSS).”
This review reinforces that warning and calls for urgent, government-led reforms to better protect youth online. Research shows that voluntary regulations have failed to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing, particularly on rapidly evolving digital platforms.
An evaluation of celebrity endorsement policies and practices in promoting food products to adolescents in the U.S., for example, concluded that limited progress had been made to strengthen the accountability structures to ensure healthy food environments.
Many regulations fail to account for the complexity of modern marketing strategies or to distinguish between content “targeted at” children and content that merely reaches them, the researchers say.
Additionally, adolescents — often excluded from policies focused on “children” — fall through the cracks, despite being heavy users of social media.
Also, in the U.S., the First Amendment protects commercial speech, such as marketing, from government interference. That includes public health restrictions on companies that advertise commodities linked to public health harms, including food, tobacco and alcohol.
Tech companies are currently seeking to overturn a state law in Florida that bans some social media accounts for teens younger than 16 or 14- and 15-year-olds without a parent’s permission. But regulation to protect children is needed, the researchers say.
“Unhealthy food regulations for children and adolescents have not kept up with the changing digital marketing landscape, particularly with the rise of social media, and it is evident that the same regulations and regulatory approaches that were employed for traditional media sources will not be effective across the digital world,” they say.
Recommendations include:
- Clear definitions of child-targeted digital marketing.
- International collaboration to close regulatory loopholes.
- Mandatory restrictions on unhealthy food promotion to minors.
- Media literacy education to build critical thinking in youth.
- Stronger systems to track and monitor online ad exposure.
Parents, too, have a role to play by initiating conversations about how digital marketing works and encouraging media literacy. However, researchers caution that individual efforts are unlikely to be enough without systemic reforms.
“Given the review’s finding that self-regulatory policies are ineffective, parents and guardians should advocate for government regulations to better protect children from ultra-processed and other unhealthy food marketing practices,” the authors conclude.
“For children and adolescents, social media platforms and the online environment are a daily part of their life. Recognition of the digital food environment’s impact on health and nutrition will be key in addressing child and adolescent health worldwide.”
Originally published by U.S. Right to Know.
Pamela Ferdinand is an award-winning journalist and former MIT Knight Science Journalism fellow who covers the commercial determinants of public health (private sector activities that affect our health).
