Parental mediation of food marketing communications aimed at children

Children spend the majority of their leisure time watching screens of various kinds (television, computer, mobile phone, tablet) through which they can potentially be exposed to many commercial messages. Marketers also reach children through more traditional channels, such as on-pack, sales promotions, sponsorship and so on. Given the proliferation of channels and communication methods for reaching the child audience, we ask how parents approach the task of mediating/restricting their child’s exposure to marketing communications should they wish to do so. In a qualitative study investigating parents’ and children’s understanding of food marketing communications in the UK, we found that parents attempt to counter food marketing messages across a wider range of communications than previously identified, but that newer media such as advergames and websites are not fully recognised as channels of food marketing.

"Parents’ focus on the more traditional marketing communications was rather unexpected, given the rise of newer forms of communication popular with marketers. We account for this focus by offering two explanations: first, we found that parents were unaware of the marketing content of newer media and therefore did not recognise websites, advergames or video games as featuring marketing communications; second, the internet was regulated by parents for different reasons, primarily to do with unsuitable content, and thus associated with safety rather than marketing. Both lack of awareness and focus on safety indicate that parents are not explicitly countering food marketing messages their children come in to contact with when playing online, and therefore are not implementing mediation." (Newman and Oates, 2014: 592).