Our plan for the future of children’s health 

While we all have a role to play in teaching children healthy habits, there is too much emphasis on parental or individual responsibility. Childhood obesity is influenced by a broad range of environmental, cultural, genetic, psychological, and social influences far outside of children’s control.

Only the state can address the big drivers of this phenomenon and is failing our children through weak policies that lack resources, targets or sufficient patrol of marketing tactics.

Policy manifesto on childhood obesity

The Irish Heart Foundation is leading a campaign to lower the rates of childhood obesity and improve the future of children’s health.

Consulting with experts in the field, parents and young people, we developed a political manifesto to challenge the government to take stronger action to reduce child obesity rates.

Our proposals include:

• A pledge of leadership from Government to make child obesity a priority across departments;
• A ban on the marketing of unhealthy foods to children across broadcast and online;
• Addressing the clustering of fast food outlets near schools
• A law for honest labelling for food products that identify products high in fat, sugar, salt;
• Industry measures to promote the reduction of sugar in food and drinks products popular with children
• Promotion of healthier food choices through a children’s health fund with monies raised from the Sugar Sweetened Drinks Tax

Protecting Children’s Rights

The evidence is mounting to support digital marketing in particular as a major children’s rights concern, as well as the protection of privacy, identity and data processing. The IHF believes that marketing for unhealthy food negatively affects a broad range of children’s rights, not least their right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and their right to privacy.

Nevertheless, the acknowledgement of the problem has not translated into effective Government action, with the exception of the publication of the Children’s Commercial Communications Code in 2013.

As part of its efforts to reduce childhood obesity, restrict junk food marketing to young people and protect children’s data online, the Irish Heart Foundation has been lobbying Government for regulation of marketing particularly in the online and social media space, where children can be directly targeted by junk food brands. You can read more about our work influencing the  Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill here.

Help us show the government that we have your support 

We would love you to support our campaign to encourage more government action by signing our petition  and signing up to be a campaigner.

 Our campaigners help us in various ways and in May 2019 they met with the then Junior Minister for Health Promotion, Catherine Byrne T.D. to discuss our campaign to ban junk food marketing to children.