by Pedro Teixeira

We live in a fast-paced world in which sedentary behavior is increasing by the day. Seems contradictory, doesn’t it? Everything around us is constantly changing, but we are making it change from the comfort our seat, which is located right in front of the computer screen.
It’s no secret that children love the Internet. And what do we find on the Internet? Ads – which may or may not be influencing kids’ lives negatively.

The World Health Organization had previously shown concern regarding children and how overly exposed they are to junk food ads on the Internet and it seems that some measures are now going to be taken. But will it actually make any difference?

Media carefully craft their messages in order to catch the viewers’ attention and manipulate them into buying whatever it is that they are trying to sell, whether that is a product or simply a belief. The authors have a target audience in mind, whose interests revolve around the same thing and so the tactics used in order to control them can be defined from the start.

The children of today have been using the Internet for as long as they can remember. We could say that they are victims of circumstance. There’s so much information that they have absorbed from all the ads they have been forced to watch. Since they are so easily manipulated and get so easily fascinated by what they see online, if they see an ad for McDonalds, it is likely that they will ask their parents later that day to drive them to McDonalds. It’s important to pay attention to what kind of ads kids are seeing. The industry is only worried about profits, but we should be worried about our health and the health of those around us.

Despite the change, fast food will remain hard to escape. Even if kids don’t see ads for junk food online, there’s a chance they’ll see a huge billboard advertising junk food right as they step out of their homes.With the days going by so fast and lives getting more and more hectic, fast food seems like the most cheap and reliable option, in spite of its health drawbacks. A lot of times, parents don’t have the time to think or even care about what their children are eating.

There are concerns relating to the veracity of the campaign and it has been suggested that an independent monitor is hired in order to confirm if the measures are indeed being taken. In the end, it might actually not make much of difference, but it’s still a step in the right direction.

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