Findings From The Children’s Commissioner
Children in England are being regularly shown online adverts for weight loss injections and pills, despite rules that ban this kind of advertising, according to a new report from the children’s commissioner. The report said young people are being “bombarded” with posts that claim to change bodies and appearance, and described the content as harmful to self-esteem.
Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, said the posts are damaging to young people and called for a ban on social media advertising to children. A spokesperson for Ofcom, the media regulator, said it does not accept technology companies putting engagement ahead of children’s online safety.
What Young People Say They See Online
The report is based on a survey of 2,000 children aged 13 to 17, along with two focus groups. Respondents said they often see adverts for weight loss products such as diet foods and drinks, as well as skin-lightening products, some of which can be illegal to sell in the UK.
Participants also said beauty-related content is hard to avoid online, including posts that promote cosmetic procedures such as lip fillers. The findings point to repeated exposure rather than isolated cases.
Calls For Stronger Rules And Enforcement
Dr Peter Macaulay, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Derby, said ending social media advertising to children is a necessary step and argued that regulation should go further. He said this should include stronger platform accountability, better enforcement of age-appropriate design rules, and education to help children understand and handle online pressure.
Dame Rachel’s report suggests changing the Online Safety Act to include a clear duty of care that would require platforms to stop showing adverts to children. The Online Safety Act is designed to make the internet safer in the UK, especially for children, and is enforced by Ofcom. It requires companies to remove harmful material quickly once it is identified.
Ofcom’s Position And The Children’s Code
The report also calls for updates to Ofcom’s Children’s Code of Practice to explicitly protect children from body stigma content. Ofcom said this type of content is already covered under existing rules for non-designated content.
A spokesperson for the regulator said body stigma content can be very harmful and that its codes require services to protect children from seeing it and to act quickly when they become aware of it.
Wider Policy Debate And Next Steps
Dame Rachel also called for stronger regulation of online sales of age-restricted products and suggested the government should consider limiting children’s access to some social media platforms. She said urgent action is needed to create an online environment that is safer by design and said it should not be acceptable for online services to profit from children’s insecurities.
A government spokesperson said it has been clear that the Online Safety Act is not the end of the discussion and confirmed that a national consultation has recently been launched on further measures to protect children online, including the possibility of banning social media for under 16s.
Featured image credits: Pexels
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