Paid children’s flu promotes fast food and sugary soft drinks for kids hanging on YouTube, U.S. researchers have found out. Nearly half of the top YouTube videos advertise food and sugary drinks, and 90 percent advertise unhealthy snacks and their associated games.
Millions are paid by the U.S. video-sharing channel, YouTube, for so-called kidfluencers to promote unhealthy foods and sugary drinks to other children in their videos, a U.S. study found.
The highest-paying children’s flu in the past two years was a 9-year-old Texas boy, Ryan Kaji, who has his own channel on the biggest video share called Ryan’s World. Researchers say the little boy earned $ 26 million last year.
However, fast food chains and soft drink manufacturers are only interested in how to place their products in these hugely popular videos, the online edition of the English Daily Mail reported .
While there is little advertising regulation in the U.S. to protect children’s health, in the UK, the government is trying to curb TV fast food ads by only allowing them to broadcast after 9pm.
McDonald’s, Burger King, and colleagues responded by moving a significant portion of their ads to social media, where they are experiencing increasing reach not only among adults but also among children.
Experts say authorities need to do more to restrict so-called “junk food” ads for children.
“Kids see thousands of food commercials on television every year, and their appearance on YouTube videos makes it even harder to maintain a healthy diet,” said Marie Bragg, director of research at NYU-SGPH.
According to the expert, YouTube’s appeal has grown particularly in 2020, with many parents working from home due to the epidemic, and often the easiest way to tie children up is to let them video online.
YouTube is the second most visited site in the world after Google, a popular destination for kids looking for fun. More than 80 percent of parents raising a minor child allow their child to watch youtube, and 35 percent of parents say their child regularly watches stories on the video-sharing channel.
(Source: biokalauz.co.hu; maramalade.co.hu; hirado.hu | Image: pixabay.com)