Gaming platforms bombard kids with junk food ads

There are fears children playing livestreaming video games will develop bad eating habits because of the commercials they are exposed to.

Children are bombarded by ads for alcohol, junk food and energy drinks on popular livestreaming gaming platforms, a new study has found.

Regular users of gaming sites such as Twitch, Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming are

exposed to influence-endorsed commercials for energy drinks, soft drinks, processed snacks, alcohol and lollies, researchers from Penn State University have found.

Up to one quarter of the users of such sites – which soared in popularity during the Covid pandemic- are children aged between 13 and 17.

Such platforms allow users to watch other gamers as they play videos in real time, and to chat and communicate with the other users.

Livestreaming gaming platforms have become more popular during the pandemic.

Energy drinks such as Red Bull and Monster Energy account for 74 per cent of the products advertised, but other popularly promoted brands include Budweiser, Heineken, Doritos, Nutella, Oreos, Uber Eats, KFC and McDonald’s.

Australian ads are customised with a mixture of local and international brands, with Twitch TV currently promoting food delivery site Doordash’s special offer on Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and Pizza Hut.

Caitlyn Edwards, a postdoctoral scholar of nutritional sciences at Penn State University, said this type of marketing “can normalise high-fat, high-sugar and high-sodium foods at a time in young viewers’ lives when they’re developing eating habits that are going to follow them into adulthood”.

“We saw an increase, for example, in alcohol branding, which could normalise the idea that alcohol consumption needs to be a regular thing in a viewership that is still underage,” she said.

Research reveals there is a high rate of junk food ads on gaming platforms.

The researchers, who analysed ads over a 17-month period from July 2019 to November 2020, saw growth across all livestreaming platforms during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Livestreaming has traditionally been considered a niche market for video gamers, yet rapid technological shifts have facilitated the movement of daily events to livestreaming: children have begun livestreaming school and social events like virtual birthday parties,” Dr Edwards said.

The biggest increase is in users of Twitch, which his owned by Amazon.

“Influencer marketing has proven effective on other internet platforms (e.g. YouTube, Instagram), and marketing of unhealthy snacks to children via influencers in particular has been associated with increased food intake even when the influencer discloses that they are advertising a product,” Dr Edwards said.

She said regulation of such marketing “unfortunately lags far behind new forms of technology and media, and those that do exist are aimed towards television advertisements”.

The Australian Council of Children and the Media has been calling for better regulation of digital media to reduce the exposure of young people to advertising.