‘Kid influencers’ often advertise unhealthy food and beverages
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Researchers analyzed hundreds of YouTube videos and found that “kid influencers” — online celebrities who earn money advertising or promoting products — often publicize unhealthy food and drink brands, according to a study in Pediatrics.
Omni Cassidy, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at New York University School of Medicine, and colleagues used data from Socialbakers, a global artificial intelligence-powered social media marketing company, to identify the five most-watched kid influencers aged 3 to 14 years on YouTube in 2019. The researchers then searched for 50 of their most watched videos, as well as 50 of their videos that featured food and/or drinks.
After qualifying 418 YouTube videos for analysis, the authors used three steps to estimate the number of impressions generated by videos featuring food and/or drinks — first they recorded the number of minutes food and/or drinks appeared in a video; then then multiplied that number by the number of views the video received; and finally, they tallied the total number of minutes for all videos.
The data showed that 179 (42.8%) videos featured food and/or drinks, and that food and/or drinks appeared 291 times in those videos. The 179 videos were viewed more than 1 billion times and received 2.6 million “likes” on YouTube. Product placement in the videos generated about 16.5 million impressions for items that were “mostly unhealthy branded products.”
“We encourage parents to limit the amount of time children are watching these very popular, seemingly harmless YouTube videos, even if it may appear to be child friendly or educational,” Cassidy told Healio. “We also encourage clinicians to help inform parents that food and drink ads on YouTube and other digital media platforms can look like simple entertainment but may be sending messages that make it increasingly harder for parents and children to make healthy food choices.”
Food was categorized as unhealthy if it received a score greater than 4 on the Nutrient Profile Model, a validated nutrition scoring tool, the authors wrote. Drinks were categorized as unhealthy if they contained more than 25 g of added sugar.
According to the results, 263 (90.34%) of the promoted food and/or drinks were unhealthy branded items — for example, McDonald’s. This was followed by unhealthy unbranded items, such as hot dogs (n = 12; 4.1%). Healthy unbranded items (n = 9; 3.1%) included fruit, and healthy branded items (n = 7; 2.4%) included Yoplait yogurt.
The authors recommend that the Federal Trade Commission strengthen regulations regarding product placement on YouTube videos that feature young children.
“We could also look to other regulations, like those outlined in the Kids Internet Design and Safety (KIDDS) Act proposed by Senators Markey and Blumenthal to protect children from manipulative marketing,” Cassidy said.