Children of the empire:
Groups such as the National Heart Forum and food and health lobbyists Sustain believe controls must go beyond children's programmes.Poulter/Daily Mail 27.Mar.06
Richard Watts of Sustain said: "The statistics show that about 70 per cent of commercials during children's viewing are for food. Of these, something like 80-100per cent are for junk.
"These are the wrong messages to send children at a time when we are seeing an increase in weight problems."
Over the past 10 years, obesity among six-year-olds has doubled and trebled among 15-year-olds. And obesity diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, are now being seen for the first time in children.
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link Wikipedia 01.Jul.06
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This is somehow resonant of the Iraq/Guantanamo shift that's gathering.
Now that it's over, now that the real, unspoken, mission's accomplished, we'll be allowed to see our immediate demands met.
Troops home, Guantanamo wound down.
Now that it pretty much doesn't mean anything except to the individuals directly affected.
Now that the damage has been done.
And you won't see too many people suggesting much more than that; nothing about what we should say to those whose experience of the invasion and occupation and captivity has been first-hand.
Sorry?
Too bad?
Oh well?
Not that it shouldn't happen but...
The idea that companies, which are really just men hiding behind shields of law and regulation, can be allowed, by law and regulation, to seduce children into ill health, and the best that can be done in response is an effort to prevent them from continuing to advertise directly to the young and impressionable - this is not especially comforting. Important and vital and necessary, but not comforting.
