While social media may have brought people closer together, it doesn't come without its negative aspects. As per a new study, social media marketing can have a negative impact on children's food habits. The study showed that celebrity endorsements and advertisements of certain foods prompted children to start consuming these foods.
As per the reports, among children aged 8-11 years, 93% go online, 77% watch online videos and 18% have a social media account. In children aged 12-15, 99% go online, 89% watch online videos and 69% have a social media account. For the study, 176 children, aged between 9 and 11 years were split into three groups. They were shown videos of artificially created but realistic Instagram pages of vloggers.
One group was shown videos of vloggers consuming unhealthy snacks, one group was shown consuming healthy snacks and one group was shown non-food items. It was found that children who watched vloggers consume unhealthy foods, consumed 32% more calories than the group watching healthy food habits. The unhealthy group also ate 26% more calories than both the other groups combined.
"These findings suggest that the marketing of unhealthy foods, via vloggers' Instagram pages, increases children's immediate energy intake. The results are supported by celebrity endorsement data, which show unhealthy food endorsements increase children's unhealthy food intake, but healthy food endorsements have little or no effect on healthy food intake,” said a researcher.
“Young people trust vloggers more than celebrities so their endorsements may be even more impact and exploitative. Tighter restrictions are needed around the digital marketing of unhealthy foods that children are exposed to, and vloggers should not be permitted to promote unhealthy foods to vulnerable young people on social media," the researcher concluded.