Mandatory Regulation of Food Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents Within the Digital Context: A Systematic Scoping Review.

Abstract

A potentially powerful strategy for reducing children and adolescents' exposure to unhealthy food marketing is the implementation of mandatory regulatory measures applicable in the digital environment. This study aimed to systematically identify and characterize regulatory measures concerning food marketing directed at children and adolescents within digital spaces. A systematic scoping review was conducted following the PRISMA-ScR reporting guidelines and registered with the Open Science Framework (OSF). The study assessed the alignment of these measures with the recommendations for regulating food marketing set forth by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Inclusion criteria required regulatory measures to be mandatory, specific to food marketing, applicable at the national level, and relevant to the digital context. Draft laws, general regulatory frameworks not specific to food marketing, and self- or co-regulatory initiatives were excluded. The search identified eight regulatory measures proposed by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, South Korea, Kiribati, Peru, and Portugal. Notably, only the measures from Bolivia and South Korea explicitly state restrictions for individuals under 18 years of age. A rights-based approach was identified in the texts from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru. Furthermore, the regulatory measures from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Kiribati, and Peru present a broad definition of marketing. All measures employ nutritional criteria to classify targeted foods and impose limitations on marketing power. In conclusion, mandatory regulations for food marketing in the digital environment are limited, concentrated in specific geographic regions, and do not fully align with WHO and UNICEF recommendations.