State ‘not guarding kids from junk food adverts’

The Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) has hit out at the State over what it describes as its “failure to protect children from online junk food marketing”.

The criticism comes almost a year to the day since the Department of Health launched a voluntary code on advertising, an effort the IHF said represents “weak regulation that was doomed to failure” because companies are not obliged to sign up and face no penalties for non-compliance.