World Health Organization urges to stop online junk food ads

The WHO has published a report on ‘Tackling food marketing to children in a digital world‘ (pdf), which analyses the digital marketing of junk food high in salt, sugar and fats to kids. According to the report, existing regulations are insufficient to address the challenges, as they often only apply to ‘pre-digital media’, usually don’t target adolescents, and cannot address ‘the complex challenges of supra-national regulation of global media’. Apart from urging to improve legislation at the national level, the WHO notes that international legislation recognises the need for ‘serious sanctions…and international cross-border strategies’.