After the banning of Junk food ads during TV programmes targeted at under-10s, which came into force in the UK in January 2007, it has now been decided that the only way to protect children is to ban all TV advertising for unhealthy food before 9pm. A Which? report showed clearly that the regulations, as they stand, are failing to keep ads for unhealthy ‘junk’ food out of the programmes watched by most children, with only 2 of the 10 TV programmes that are most popular with the under 10’s, covered by government rules.

Under the original 2007 ruling brought in by the communications regulator Ofcom, adverts which promoted foods high in fat, sugar and salt were banned during programmes that were thought likely to appeal to children under 10. From the end of January 2008 these rules have been extended to programmes that might appeal to young people up to the age of 16.

While it might be seen as a good thing to remove the temptation from impressionable youngsters, is this regulation really hitting the target? All of us who have or know youngsters know that as well as their own programmes, there are plenty of programmes not aimed at their demographic that they watch just as avidly. The argument to ban all such advertising up until the 9 pm watershed might seem to be the way forward. But is even that really the answer?

It seems to me that most children whose parents are careful about their kid’s eating habits would already have got this area of pester power under control with or without government intervention.

On the other side of the coin, the kids of parents who take no notice whatsoever of government health warnings are as likely to turn the TV off at 9.pm as fly to the moon!

My childhood was a pleasant voyage of discovery of an ever more prolific range of confectionary. I’ve never been a small girl, but I’m fit and healthy, I walk miles with the dog. I agree that if our health prospects are suffering from over use of certain foodstuffs we need to be told. But why do the government not take on the ‘junk food’ industry and make changes at source to what is on offer?

Harping back to my youth spent loitering at the sweet shop door, at least to get to the sweet shop I had to walk or cycle, and there was no playstation or X box waiting for me at home, so I played outside, walked, jumped, ran and cycled, clutching my bag of gob stoppers, liquorice laces and sugar mice. And that is the fundamental difference, as children we moved, we wanted to be outside, had no particular reason to be inside.

This may seem like an over simplified view of this problem, but children will always want what they shouldn’t have whether they see it on TV, hear about it from friends or see it in the supermarket, there are hundreds of possibilities. It’s up to us as adults to help them strike the right balance.

So will the advertising ban help? Well, while the government is happy that even the most nutritionally redundant food is still made and marketed, I for one think we would be naïve to rely on this small step to solve our problems. What does anyone else think?

It's easy to say that good food should be given and that children would be kept away from what is bad for them, but even without the pressure of the media, their fiends and their friends mothers may have very different ideas to you on what to serve for lunch or tea, if you child is visiting another home. And the problem with the things that are bad for us is that most of them taste so damn good! That makes us want to come back time and time again to that chocolate bar or bag of chips and not just children, us adults too! I say that if these things are so bad for us, why do governments not force manufacturers to cut back on salt and sugar addition, if they all had to do it, no-one would be at a disadvantage and what is more none of the food that is so bad for us would be available in the first place!

Well, junk food is not at all good for these young kids, agreed. But at the same time it has become next to impossible to make you child stay away from junk food.

And that is the problem, I think that you ache hit the nail on the head. We need to find some way of making non junk food more appealing to children. And the other problem is that however much we concentrate on good food at home once they get to school or to other children's houses all bets are off! I suppose the best we can hope for is that they get some good food at home to balance the junk they eat outside!

I agree with you, most of the children only like junky foods, and the main reason for this are the colorful advertisements. the most difficult job in the world is feeding our kids with healthy foods, these kids know all the possible tricks to avoid all healthy fruits and foods.