When advertising companies think of ideas of ways to target their product to their audience they use different psychological and marketing techniques. Although children have been found to develop skepticism earlier than what researchers originally thought, children, are still considered more gullible than adults (Webmd 2005). Meaning, it takes less for children to be convinced by an idea, or more specifically the greatness of a product than an adult would. This being said, there needs to be stronger government regulations on unhealthy food advertisements that target children. 

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            A study performed by the Health Consumer Protection Program researched the time duration,  techniques, and frequency of advertisements televised during children’s programs. The study showed that children were exposed to advertisements for unhealthy food products for about 10 minutes each hour of television in 69% of children’s television programs. 33% of those advertisements included messages that impacted children’s health. Therefore, the study concluded that advertising companies were not following the regulations of the Notification of the Public Relations Department Announcement. 

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          The study suggests that the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission should employ stricter guidelines including specific duration times and frequency regulations on advertisements targeting children (Sukamolson, Kulsomboon, & Sriviriyanuparp 2012). Advertising companies have not been abiding by the regulations that have already been in place so stricter regulations need to be put in place along with consequences if the companies do not obey those rules. The amount that children are able to be exposed to unhealthy advertisements can have serious detrimental effects on their health such as childhood obesity, diabetes, heart damage, tooth decay, and many other consequences. Although for the majority of the childhood years their parents and guardians are the ones that are buying them their food items, children are notorious for encouraging their parents to buy those items especially if their peers are eating it. Children need to be protected and censored from advertisements that can cause them to want to eat unhealthy food items.