Ofcom junk food regulations challenged by academic research

There is a new academic study published today in the Archives of Diseases of Childhood that questions the effectiveness of Ofcom’s 2007 regulations prohibiting junk food advertising around children’s television programming.

I haven’t read the research ($20 to purchase it — thanks, guys) but here is a link to the abstract.  It appears that the researchers only reviewed three terrestrial television channels in the UK over a one week period in 2006.  That means they did not review satellite/cable dedicated children’s channels.  Still, one cannot really say Ofcom did that much research after its July 2004 report.  The regulator was basically ordered to adopt restrictions by the UK government.

Advertising restrictions that cover lawful products and lawful speech are severe limits on our freedom of expression.  Yet they are often most commonly associated with media panics, pseudo-science and gesture politics.

I suppose the broader point is whether any restrictions on advertising really serve their purpose, particularly when they are aimed at the increasingly narrow medium of television.