Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The topic I would like to bring forward for debate today as a matter of public importance is the pervasive marketing of harmful products to children in Australia. The products I am referring to are ones that have the potential to cause or contribute to harm at both an individual and a societal level—products such as junk food, alcohol and gambling. Our government spends billions every year treating and trying to manage preventable chronic diseases and social problems that are fuelled by such harmful products—problems such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke caused by unhealthy diet and being overweight, problems such as mental distress, suicide, family breakdown, crime and bankruptcy resulting from gambling addiction and problems such as family violence, job loss, injury, accidents and sexual assault resulting from alcohol misuse or abuse. And the list goes on.

These products don't cause harm if used occasionally or in moderation, but the problem is that our children are being deluged daily with marketing of these harmful products online, on radio and on TV. Their world is full of these products. They are everywhere and inescapable. Nor is it just incidental encounters. On digital media platforms, the marketing is individualised and targeted. This is occurring during their most formative years, setting them up for unhealthy behaviours often for life.

In my time today I will focus on the marketing of junk food. What is the problem? One-quarter of Australian children and two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese. Being overweight is a leading cause of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. It's also a strong risk factor for things like cancer, depression and dementia. The national obesity strategy found that being overweight and obese costs the Australian health system $12 billion a year, and this could rise to $88 billion by 2032 if nothing is done. These figures show that this is a societal problem, not just an individual one, and it requires a societal response.

At a time when our health system is in crisis, rather than pouring endless dollars into end-stage disease management, we should be acting to prevent these problems and not just because it would save the budget bottom line but because we should be creating environments that support our children to thrive both physically and mentally. Our current situation, however, is very different to this. Children are exposed to endless junk food ads on TV, radio and digital media platforms. The average child aged five to eight years old is exposed to at least 827 unhealthy food advertisements on TV each year. But far more dangerous is the individual targeting of our children on digital platforms, where their personal data is being mined and sold.

One study of teens active on social media in Victoria showed that they had been individually tagged with over 1,000 labels and that this data had been sold to 194 different companies. Social media advertising algorithms are targeted and they learn. What does this mean for the obesity epidemic amongst our young people? Research has shown that exposure to junk food advertising leads directly to an increase in both caloric intake and weight gain. So a powerful way to help prevent being unhealthily overweight at both the individual and the population level would be to regulate children's exposure to unhealthy food marketing.

Approximately 40 countries, including the UK, Ireland and Norway, have already regulated or are planning to regulate junk food advertising. Just last year the UK government legislated a ban on junk food advertising on TV between 6 am and 9 pm from 2024, and it will ban it entirely from social and digital media platforms. I am proposing we introduce a similar model here in Australia. Our Privacy Act must also be strengthened so that our children's personal digital data cannot be collected or sold. It should not be possible for our children to be preyed upon for profit in this way, to their own detriment.

Today is World No Tobacco Day. Australia led the way and has been really successful in reducing smoking rates in this country by ending tobacco marketing, amongst other measures. Now it is time to act to regulate other forms of harmful advertising, including junk food advertising.

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