CHILDREN are to be protected from junk food advertisements sent over the internet or by text message as part of a drive to tackle the country’s obesity crisis.

New regulations and standards to cover innovative marketing techniques that promote junk food are to be decided by a new inquiry from the Committee on Advertising Practice (CAP) to be announced today.

It will also investigate online games, video clips, images and e-cards that promote brands and products to children.

Such a ban is likely to mean an end to text promotions such as the link between Nestlé confectionery and the film The Incredibles and an online newsletter connecting Kellogg’s Frosties with the film Star Wars Episode II.

A change in the law would be required to cover advertising on companies’ own websites.

The move coincides with new curbs on junk food advertising during children’s TV hours to be set out today in a report from Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator.

It will be at least six months before any new controls on TV promotions are in place.

Meanwhile, consumer groups and senior advertising figures are demanding urgent action to regulate the use of the internet and other new media facilities to sell junk food to children.

The CAP, which lays down regulations for the advertising industry, is already concerned that many food companies are switching from TV advertising to “viral marketing” to promote items such as chocolate bars, breakfast cereals and fizzy drinks. Spending on TV promotions for foods high in salt, sugar, fat and saturated fats has dropped 22 per cent in the five years since 1999, when the total was £669 million.

One website that has enraged Which?, the consumer organisation, is for Kellogg’s CocoPops. It encourages children to win tickets for a visit to Alton Towers theme park, but to be eligible for the competition the company asks for e-mail details of their “crew”, a list of friends. Which? suggests this is a ploy for the company to expand its database and to target young people for promotions.

People signing up to Microsoft’s MSN Messenger programme are also now likely to be hit with adverts from McDonald’s. MSN Messenger is one of the world’s most popular instant messaging services and is used by more than ten million people in Britain, of whom 800,000 are under 18.

The Department of Health set up a food and drink advertising promotion forum last year to look at non-broadcast marketing techniques of junk food to children.

It has only met three times and its work has been stalled because Ofcom’s own report into junk food promotions during children’s TV has been delayed by three months.

Nevertheless, a firm line has already been agreed.

Sue Dibb, of the National Consumer Council, who is chairing the forum’s sub-committee looking at new media advertising, confirmed that a ban on children’s junk food promotion would be extended from TV to all forms of media.

“New media opens up a whole new world that is full of opportunities. We know that young people are concerned. It’s not just the internet, it’s mobile phones as well,” she said.

Michelle Smyth, food campaigner at Which?, said: “It really is important we get a ‘catch-all’ system in place to cover all junk food advertising as soon as possible.”

Which? is also concerned that advertising is now creeping into children’s playgrounds. It cites the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland, a canal history visitor centre that includes an adventure playground made from giant cans of high sugar Irn-Bru drinks. Irn-Bru has 3.3g of sugar per can.

Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University, in London, said: “Advertising shapes children’s view of food and marketing people now have moved away from TV to the internet, placement of products and texting to get at children.”

No one was available for comment at Kellogg’s, but a spokesman for Microsoft Messenger service said the company had a wide range of ways to reach consumers. He added: “All campaigns carried by MSN comply with all applicable guidelines, prinicpally the Committee of Advertising Practice Code administered by the Advertising Standards Authority.”

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