YouTube influencers are becoming a “stealth marketing” vehicle for selling unhealthy food to children, according to a new study.
The study, in the journal Pediatrics, looked at how influencers on YouTube, usually children themselves, market junk foods and beverages. Out of 418 videos studied, 179 showed branded foods or beverages, and of those, more than 90% were fast food or other unhealthy items.
Researchers called for regulations limiting the exposure of children to marketing for unhealthy food, calling it a form of “host selling,” where hosts or characters of a TV show promote products within that show – a practice that is banned from broadcast television.
"This kind of marketing is uncharted territory for families and researchers," Marie Bragg, a professor of public health at New York University and one of the study’s authors, told CNN.
Legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate in March would place restrictions on using internet videos to market to children, such as making it illegal for websites to promote such videos and banning auto-play settings for them.
