Should The Government Regulate Food Advertising Targeted Towards Children?
Historically, advertisers have been left to regulate their own conduct in advertising and marketing products to children. However, criticism of the effectiveness of self-regulation has increased over the years — especially as the waistlines of American children have grown. The latest evidence of a possible shift away from self-regulation to federal regulation of children’s advertising comes with the Federal Trade Commission’s request for public comments regarding the food industry’s child-directed advertising and marketing practices. Currently, there is only minimal governmental regulation of children’s advertising. For example, the Federal Communications Commission limits the number of minutes of television commercials that can air during children’s programming and prohibits certain practices, such as program-length commercials and host selling. For the most part, however, children’s advertising is left to industry self-regulation. Many advertisers agree to voluntarily comply with se
