Children's Commissioner Calls for Urgent Action Against Harmful Online Advertising
Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children's Commissioner for England, has issued a stark warning about the online world profiting from children's insecurities. She is demanding immediate measures to protect young people from being targeted by advertisements for dangerous and age-restricted products.
Study Reveals Alarming Exposure to Harmful Products
New research commissioned by the Children's Commissioner has uncovered that teenagers in England are routinely exposed to harmful products through social media, video games, and various apps. The study found that children are effectively being "bombarded" with content promoting items such as prescription-only weight-loss drugs, potentially toxic skin-whitening creams, and steroids claiming to build muscle mass.
Among 13 to 17-year-olds surveyed, the statistics are particularly concerning:
- 41% reported seeing ads for prescription-only weight-loss drugs.
- 27% had encountered potentially toxic skin-whitening creams.
- 24% had viewed steroids and other muscle-building substances.
Young people indicated that these harmful products frequently appear in lifestyle influencer content on social media platforms, in advertising from small-scale content creators, and within gaming environments. Many of these products are banned for individuals under 18, yet they remain accessible to teenagers online.
Negative Impact on Self-Esteem and Health
The exposure to these products is having a detrimental effect on children's mental and physical well-being. More than three-quarters of the 2,000 teenagers polled stated that seeing such advertisements negatively impacted their self-esteem. This finding aligns with previous research from the Children's Commissioner, which revealed that only 40% of girls and 60% of boys were happy with their appearance.
Furthermore, some children reported adverse physical reactions after trying appearance-changing products they discovered online. For instance, infections resulted from using eyelash products containing undisclosed chemicals. The study also highlighted that over half of children had seen ads for food and drinks claiming to aid weight loss, with one in five having purchased or tried weight-loss foodstuffs, and 8% experimenting with non-prescription weight-loss pills.
Ethnic Inequalities and Broader Concerns
The research uncovered significant ethnic disparities in exposure and usage. Black children were more likely to report trying weight-loss products, while higher proportions of black and Asian teenagers had seen advertisements for skin-lightening creams, many of which are illegal in the UK. Additionally, two-thirds of children had encountered teeth-whitening products online, and more than half of girls had seen content promoting cosmetic procedures like fillers or Botox, despite these being illegal for under-18s.
Commissioner's Recommendations and Government Response
Dame Rachel de Souza emphasized that simply banning social media for under-16s, as the government is currently consulting on, would not provide an "immediate guarantee" of online safety. She argued that any ban must consider children's perspectives and online behaviors, with a clear enforcement plan to prevent them from migrating to riskier parts of the internet.
She stated: "Extreme and potentially dangerous appearance-changing products are being normalised to children through advertising, influencer culture and online posts, despite many of these products being unsafe, illegal or strictly age-restricted. For their developing and fragile sense of self-esteem, this is immensely damaging."
De Souza called for urgent action to create an online environment that is "truly safer by design," rejecting a world that profits from children's insecurities. The report proposes several measures, including a ban on all advertising to children on social media, strengthening Ofcom's children's code of practice to explicitly protect against body stigma content, and enhanced regulation of online sales to prevent children from purchasing age-restricted products.
A government spokesperson responded, highlighting the Online Safety Act as one of the strongest online safety frameworks globally. They mentioned a recent campaign to help parents address harmful content like body-shaming and misogyny, and confirmed an ongoing national consultation on measures such as banning social media for under-16s and tackling addictive design features.
The spokesperson added: "We were always clear that the act wasn't the end of the conversation, nor is anything off the table when it comes to children's safety."
