What are the impacts that television advertisements have on our children's health?
Katelyn Keyton
Should the television program companies be responsible for what they show on T.V.?
A portion of the income television programs and publications make is from selling air time to companies to advertise their products. However, researchers found that 28.7% of companies do not participate in the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative meaning that they create their own regulations to what they air to the public. However, even the companies that follow the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, display 72.5% of food product advertisements that are considered to be nutritionally poor (Kunkel, Dale, McKinley, & Wright 2010). This being said, generalized regulations have ineffectively impacted the decisions companies make when deciding to display healthy messages. Instead, companies tend to make decisions independently and either not associate themselves with the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative at all or disobey the rules they were told to abide by. Therefore, the television companies themselves should restrict what they air on their network to companies promoting healthy messages.
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Seen through many research studies, programs do not obey the suggestions made by associations promoting positive health for children. Most companies are aware of the harmful effects their product may cause but know television is one of the most effective advertising methods considering children spend a huge portion of their day watching tv. This being said, the television programs and networks should start displaying only advertisements that display nutritional food and healthy habits to children.
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​ According to the Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development, The United States gives television companies very few regulations and instead allows them to self regulate what they display. However, extraneous research showing a positive correlation between an increase of childhood and obesity and an increase in their exposure to nutritionally poor advertisements shows that the television companies are not restricting unhealthy messages like they should (Arcan, Bruening, & Story 2013). Television programs and publication companies need to be the deciding factor on what should be displayed in their program. Without many overhead restrictions, reducing the harm on children’s health caused by advertisements affecting their health habits, consumer companies will most likely not stop advertising harmful products to their target audience. Therefore, the television companies should not sell advertisements from the companies selling harmful products to children.
