Childhood obesity is becoming a big headache for all western nations and many people blame big food producers as one of the major causes of obesity. Public opinion also is moving towards the possible legislation of food advertising so that unhealthy food is not allowed to be advertised to children of a certain age. In the UK some major food producer are trying to stop children using their websites following reports that the adverising and promotion of unhealthy and fatty foods on the net are a factor in the obesity problem in the UK.

For example Kelloggs that has a number of websites advertising its breakfast cereals as well as Nestlé that has sweets and other foods that children love but that are not all that healthy are asking children to give their age whenever they are signing up to online clubs or food promotions. The rules stipulate that if you are younger than 16 years of age you have to get permission from your parents to get email messages, participate in the competitions or to play the interactive games.

It is easy to lie about your age online and Kellogg’s said that they were aware that there campaign had many flaws in it and there was no way of knowing the age of people signing up for the promotions but said that it was a small step inj the right direction and that they couldn't actually stop bad eating habits at home and that parents must be the ones to give the right nutritional advice and information.

This far sighted move by Kellogs and Nestlé is in complete contrast to the way that the big food producers America seem to be doing with regard to food promotion.  In fact in recent study of 77 US food companies it was seen that as many as 85% of them were aimed at children. The research was undertaken by the Kaiser Family Foundation and more information coming from an internet statistics company estimated that over 12 million hits on these food websites in 2005 were from children below 11 years of age.

There are rules governing advertising to children in the US however these websites get round the rules because they are deemed to be editorial content and not strictly advertising promotions. Ukmedix is concious of the furore surrounding adverting unhealthy food to kids and feels that it should be regulated to a certain extent however this alone will not prevent any obesity problems. Ukmedix believes the most important weight loss messages come from education and information.