"What Happend to All the Things I like to Eat?"

Top notch doctors in Australia are attempting to have junk food advertisements banned from children’s viewing on television. They don’t want the ads of unhealthy foods to be shown during the times that children watch TV. A research study done by Melbourne’s Deakin University shows that if this ban were to take place, a 1.4 percent reduction of obese Australian children would occur. The research also shows that the government would save 300 million dollars that would have been put out for obesity healthcare. The state and national government are in agreement with this ban and want to begin a series of activities that will influence the reduction of obesity. An Australian doctor, by the name of Dr. Pesce states that if the unhealthy habits continue in Australia, half of the children will be obese over the next 20 years. A professor of Population Health from Deakin University believes that this ban of advertising will be the most effective.

This article is basically saying that banning advertisements of unhealthy food to children will in result lead to a reduction of obesity. They think that if the child can’t see it or does not know it exists, they will not want it. I find it ironic that they only feel the need to ban this advertisement during popular viewing times for children. Australian doctors ultimately are worried about the well being of the child and are looking for any possible ways to stop this obesity epidemic that is taking place.

What children see on television does influence their thinking and their personal choice of the things they want. If the child sees an advertisement of a particular snack and in the commercial all the kids are laughing and having fun, they receive a message that if they want to laugh and have fun, they need to be eating that particular snack. The only part of this plan that I find a flaw in is the fact that if the parents of the children are the ones primarily going out and purchasing these snacks, why are they targeting the children? Regardless of the fact that the child sees these snacks being advertised on TV, they are not the ones going to the grocery store and buying them. It is the parents’ responsibility to purchase the things that will ultimately be beneficial to their child’s health.

What do you think?

-Paige