Media's Influence On Childhood Obesity

Approximately 17 percent (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2-19 years old are obese (Cassell). Obesity is a condition characterized by the excessive accumulation and storage of fat in the body. Junk food may not be the greatest contribution to childhood obesity, but the easy access definitely makes it one of the factors. Children’s weight problems are starting as early as the age of two. They are influenced by parents, the media, and the government. The media are constantly advertising and sending unhealthy messages that encourages the consumption of junk food, but there are no federal rules for limiting the advertising of junk food aimed at children. Most importantly, how many no’s can parents say since they are going against

Many parents think that because their child is young, they will outgrow fats. Many may argue that child obesity is the fault of the parents’ because parents are the ones that feed the children, but the truth is, we all conform to society. We do what we are told is the better choice in order to fit in. Social media is one of those influences. Many advertising industries target their ads at children. Why? Because children are easy targets. Product preferences affect children’s product purchase requests and these requests influence parents’ purchasing decisions (Gale). Food ads on television make up 50% of all ad time on children’s shows. These ads are completely dominated by unhealthy food products- Children are rarely exposed to advertising for healthier foods (Gale). Legislation can accomplish more, and affect many practices that litigation cannot reach to to help decrease childhood obesity (Banzhaf). Even with the things that the federal government can possibly do, they still make little to no effort in actually enforcing restrictions to ads that are targeted at children. But it is true that limiting advertisements targeted at children can only help so much because in the business world, there are always loopholes, fast food industries now use the alternative of tempting kids with toys that will come with

Having a meal come with some sort of toy is the easiest and fastest way to catch a child’s attention. For example, McDonald’s was the first fast food chain to discover the importance of toys (Smith Toys). With that discovery, they linked with manufacturers to produce low-cost toys, which were then given away with children’s meals (Smith Toys). Often the toys that are distributed is related to movie tie-ins making it even more irresistible to children. Another factor persuading kids to want the toy is seeing other kids play with it. We have the tendency to want what others have. Since the beginning of the distribution of toys with meals, the topic has died down, but not entirely. Fast food chains now have found another way to enrapture their consumers from buying fast food meals again by starting to incorporate what seems like a nutritious and delicious meal to catch parents and children’s attention