Grant: Project Grant

The marketing of unhealthy food, alcohol, gambling, vape and cannabis products (hereinafter referred to as "harmful products") to youth is detrimental to their health, and contributes to unhealthy food choices, alcohol and cannabis use, vaping and gambling addiction. Despite Canadian youth spending significant amounts of time on digital media, little is known about their exposure to marketing of harmful products online, or how exposure may differ between jurisdictions with and without policies on harmful product digital marketing. This research aims to evaluate the extent and nature of harmful product digital marketing to youth in Canada and explore the impacts of existing policies in this area. Children and adolescents (aged 8-17 years) from Ontario and Quebec will be recruited to participate in surveys and digital screen capture sessions to collect information about their self-reported and actual exposure to harmful product digital marketing. Impacts of harmful product digital marketing on youth's awareness, purchases and consumption of harmful products, and differences between policy environments, will be examined. Interviews with policymakers and nongovernmental organizations will be conducted to collect data on barriers and facilitators to marketing policies. Lastly, a legal analysis will examine the nature and operation of current legal provincial and federal structures and whether structural amendments and/or additions are required to protect children. This project will be important in evaluating the effectiveness of existing marketing policies in protecting youth from the digital marketing of harmful products. It will identify gaps in existing policies and will inform the development of new provincial and/or national policies to restrict harmful product digital marketing to youth. It will also provide baseline data against which future policy evaluations can be compared as a means of monitoring youth's exposure to harmful product digital marketing.