• Posted June 26, 2025

Online Videos For Kids Rife With Junk Food Messaging

Kids watching YouTube videos are being hammered with messages promoting junk food like candy, sugary drinks, fast food and sweet or salty snacks, a new study says.

About 75% of 6- to 8-year-olds and 36% of 3- to 5-year-olds were fed promotions for junk food while watching YouTube or YouTube Kids videos they chose on their own mobile devices, researchers reported in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

“More than half of food brands in these videos came from companies that participate in the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, a U.S. food industry self-regulatory program,” said senior investigator Jennifer Harris, a senior research advisor at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health at the University of Connecticut.

“Despite these companies’ pledges to only advertise healthier choices to children, child-influencers frequently promoted their brands, including candy, sugary drinks and sweet and salty snacks,” she said in a news release.

For the study, researchers observed 101 kids as they watched YouTube videos in their homes for 30 minutes.

About 73% of food brand appearances promoted junk food, while only 3% of food-related messages highlighted healthy options, results show.

Most of this messaging occurred as part of brand appearances embedded within video content that purposely blurred food promotion with entertainment.

More than 60% of food brand appearances were embedded in the video content, with only 23% showing up during video previews and 17% in advertisements, researchers said.

Lifestyle videos contributed 77% of these appearances, and 71% showed an influencer or another character either consuming or preparing to consume the product, researchers said.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has called on companies and influencers to halt these common stealth marketing practices, particularly in videos aimed at young children, researchers noted.

“Very young children are being bombarded with unhealthy product promotion on YouTube and YouTube Kids, frequently embedded in their favorite videos as props or part of the storyline which disguises persuasive intent,” said lead researcher Frances Fleming-Milici, director of marketing initiatives at the Rudd Center.

“As children as young as age 3 spend more and more time on these platforms, policies must be enacted to protect them from this stealth marketing of products that harm their health,” she added in a news releae.

Google bans food and beverage advertising on YouTube Kids and during “made-for-kids” videos, researchers said.

But more than a third of 3- to 8-year-olds watching YouTube Kids viewed food brands embedded in videos and thumbnail images, researchers said.

In addition, none of the videos embedded with a food or beverage brand disclosed that a food company had sponsored the content, as required by the FTC, researchers said.

More information

The University of California-Irvine has more on targeting children as consumers.

SOURCE: University of Connecticut, news release, June 25, 2025