Call for tighter rules on children’s adverts

Date: 03/10/1996

By Chris Johnstone

A WHOLESALE overhaul of the EU's single market rules for broadcasting and the media is needed to protect children from new and insidious forms of advertising, says the European consumers' lobby BEUC.

BEUC, an umbrella organisation for the Union's national consumer associations, says the EU should reverse its current course and allow individual governments to set their own rules on advertising to young people.

The European Commission is currently attempting to force Sweden to revoke its regulations barring TV advertising to children because they do not comply with single market rules on broadcasting. But Stockholm wants its domestic ban widened to cover all programmes seen in Sweden, including those transmitted from outside the country. A final decision from the European Court of Justice is expected within two months.

The Commission is also considering a complaint to the ECJ against Greece for its ban on toy advertising between certain hours.

BEUC's demand follows a joint survey of child-targeted advertising in Europe by BEUC and the Dutch national consumer association, the Consumenten Bond. The survey found that advertisers were using more sophisticated techniques to reach children and that those aged between six and eight were unable to recognise advertising for what it was. It claimed current national and EU rules were a mess and had failed to track such innovations as Internet advertising, the blurring of news and publicity in retailers' children's comics, and the promotion of children's clubs by corporations such as Disney.

BEUC warns that as more sophisticated advertising spreads, it will be possible for companies to build up a precise profile of a child's consumer habits and target publicity directly through individual mail shots or, in the future, Internet advertising.

It wants the Commission to overturn its approach in the Television Without Frontiers Directive and come up with new ground rules for advertising to children, with clauses allowing individual countries to impose stricter conditions.

“The idea that one set of rules should be made in Brussels is not acceptable and workable in this regard,” said BEUC Director Jim Murray. “There is a feeling amongst parents that advertising to children is out of control.”

Under the Television Without Frontiers Directive, countries can vet broadcasters licensed on their territory, but not broadcasts transmitted from outside. BEUC would like that regime radically reformed and based instead on “receiving country control”.

Although seven national consumer associations (in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Portugal) support a black-out of television advertising aimed at children, BEUC admits that this would be difficult to apply.

The joint survey calls on governments and the EU to take up the example of a Dutch initiative to educate children about advertising and the hidden messages that are often conveyed therein.

The survey revealed a wide range of advertising practices aimed at children across the EU.

In Austria, the bank of Austria has a children's club; public television broadcaster ORF promotes children's CDs and videos; programmes for children on ORF are sponsored by an ice-cream producer; game shows have Nintendos as prizes; companies and banks provide teaching materials in schools; and adverts for products such as Nesquick are presented as cartoon series in comics.

In Denmark, school milk is sponsored by dairy firms, and some school equipment is paid for by toothpaste manufacturers. Direct mail is allowed, with the makers of Barbie dolls and the Disney organisation taking full advantage.

France has a tougher regime, banning direct mail and tele-shopping for children, but allowing kids' clubs and the promotion of products such as Lego in museums.

The survey found that where national or EU rules did cover such advertising, they were often poorly applied and monitored.