Kids with wildly popular YouTube channels are frequently promoting unhealthy food and drinks in their videos, warn researchers.
Food and beverage companies spend $1.8 billion dollars a year marketing their products to young people. Although television advertising is a major source of food marketing, companies have dramatically increased online advertising in response to consumers’ growing social media use.
«Kids already see several thousand food commercials on television every year, and adding these YouTube videos on top of it may make it even more difficult for parents and children to maintain a healthy diet,» said Marie Bragg, assistant professor of public health nutrition at NYU School of Global Public Health and assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone. «We need a digital media environment that supports healthy eating instead of discouraging it.»
YouTube is the second most visited website in the world and is a popular destination for kids seeking entertainment. More than 80 percent of parents with a child younger than 12 years old allow their child to watch YouTube, and 35 percent of parents report that their kid watches YouTube regularly.
«The allure of YouTube may be especially strong in 2020 as many parents are working remotely and have to juggle the challenging task of having young kids at home because of COVID-19,» said Bragg, the study’s senior author.
When finding videos for young children to watch, millions of parents turn to videos of «kid influencers,» or children whose parents film them doing activities such as science experiments, playing with toys, or celebrating their birthdays. The growing popularity of these YouTube videos have caught the attention of companies, who advertise or sponsor posts to promote their products before or during videos. In fact, the highest-paid YouTube influencer of the past two years was an 8-year-old who earned $26 million last year.
Story Source: Materials provided by New York University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.