Junk food ad ban - Stop poisoning your children

ENERGY and Communications Minister Eamon Ryan will bring legislation to cabinet tomorrow proposing a ban on advertising of junk food on children’s television.

This is entirely commendable, as anything that can be done to make us more aware of the consequences of eating badly and allowing our children to develop life-diminishing eating habits is to be encouraged.

How successful such a ban might be in an age of transnational media remains to be seen but it is a first step into an area where we may have been far too lax. We have allowed our children’s world view to be formed by commercial interests for far too long. This has been recognised in Sweden, where advertising of any kind has been banned from children’s television.

Mr Ryan’s intervention is welcome but it does not answer the most pertinent question on this issue: why do parents allow children to eat food that will, in the long run, do them great harm?