Regulação da publicidade de alimentos direcionada à criança e ao adolescente no meio digital: experiências internacionais e perspectivas brasileiras

Abstract

Introduction: Food advertising is an important determinant of dietary intake. On social media, this practice demonstrates broad reach and a high frequency of advertisements for unhealthy foods. When targeted at children and adolescents, food advertising exploits their vulnerability and violates fundamental rights, such as health, well-being, and privacy. The regulation of food advertising is therefore recognized as a legitimate public health strategy and is recommended by international organizations. However, the Brazilian regulatory agenda on this issue faces significant challenges and can be strengthened through the analysis of international experiences and a deeper understanding of the local context. Objective: To analyze regulatory measures addressing digital food advertising directed at children and adolescents, and to apply them to the context of social media in Brazil. Methods: This thesis comprises two studies. The first, a scoping review, included publications on regulatory models for food advertising applicable to digital media. The texts of the identified measures were compared to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The second, an exploratory study, applied the restrictions from Latin American models identified in the previous stage to 994 posts featuring ultra-processed food products/brands on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube in Brazil. These posts were targeted at children and adolescents. Results: The scoping review identified eight regulatory measures proposed between 2010 and 2022 by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, South Korea, Kiribati, Peru, and Portugal; none of them was specific to digital media. Overall, there was a low level of alignment between the content of the regulatory measures and WHO and UNICEF recommendations. Only Bolivia and South Korea established specific restrictions for individuals under 18 years of age. A rights-based approach was observed in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru. The regulations of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Kiribati, and Peru included broad definitions of advertising. All regulatory measures included nutritional criteria and limitations on persuasive techniques. When applying the Latin American models to social media posts in Brazil, it was found that the measures from Argentina and Chile would prohibit 62.87% and 57.53% of the posts, respectively, while the other models would result in prohibitions of less than 40%. This outcome is due to the robustness of the nutritional criteria and the explicit prohibition of unhealthy food advertising targeted at children and adolescents in those two countries. The models from Bolivia and Brazil, while referencing this audience, do not address it specifically; in the Brazilian case, the restrictions are limited to the requirement of warning labels. Peru restricts only certain types of advertising aimed at children and adolescents. Conclusion: The results reveal considerable heterogeneity among regulatory measures on food advertising and a low level of alignment with international best practices. The application of Latin American models to the Brazilian social media context demonstrated a wide permissiveness toward unhealthy food advertising. The findings and discussions presented in this thesis point to potential pathways for reducing children's and adolescents' exposure to digital advertising of unhealthy foods in Brazil.