My Lords, I declare an interest as a freelance television producer. I speak in support of Amendments 253ZA, 255A, 255B and 257B, which all attempt to give some parity in HFSS advertising restrictions between broadcasters and platforms. I apologise for having not been able to speak on Second Reading.
The noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, has already spoken about the reduction in broadcasters’ advertising revenue as the platforms take an ever-increasing share of the market. The restriction in the Bill on television advertising further tilts the playing field in their favour. What concerns me is that this part of Schedule 17 is about the media which disseminate HFSS advertising taking responsibility for it, yet once again the platforms are allowed off scot free. My concern is the complete absence of tech companies’ responsibility for the content of ads appearing on their video-sharing platforms—mainly YouTube, but also Facebook video and Snapchat’s vertical video service. This is the media to which children are migrating. Enders Analysis estimates that by 2027, children will spend more than half their viewing time looking at content on these platforms—an average of 85 minutes per day per child. Clearly, this is where advertisers and brands are going to push HFSS products.
Yet, as noble Lords know, the digital space is the Wild West. Last year, the digital task force produced its excoriating report on the near-monopoly control of digital advertising by the big platforms. The report
also mentioned the opacity of the programmatic interface, which allows advertisers to target products at specific users. Of course advertisers are themselves responsible for where they place their ads. This marketplace is the basis of the platforms’ wealth, but it is where they shirk any possibility for the content of ads. I am sure that, if platforms were made legally responsible for imposing restrictions on HFSS advertising, they would soon insert filters—or, better still, humans—into the process, much in the same way as we are seeing them do in content mediation.
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The concerns about children’s access to inappropriate ads are compounded by the lack of regulation online for these ads. As the noble Lord, Lord Vaizey, said, broadcasters must put their ads through the Clearcast process, which enforces the CAP and BCAP codes. The self-regulating CAP code also applies to online ads. It does prohibit the advertising of HFSS products to non-broadcast media, where 25% of the audience is under 16, but the lack of information from the platforms about audience age breakdown makes this very hard to check and enforce. This is compounded by the absence of a digital enforcement body to ensure compliance. As a result, HFSS products, which this Bill aims to stop being targeted at children, are being advertised and marketed in myriad online ways.
Among the worst transgressors are the content makers who use product placement. Your Lordships will know about products being placed in prominent positions in films, such as in the James Bond franchise, where huge sums are paid for the hero to use certain products on camera. The same is happening with online content. Content makers increasingly receive large amounts of money for product placement. This includes for snacks and sugary drinks, which qualify as HFSS—the very stuff this Bill is trying to restrict. Surely noble Lords would agree that this kind of insidious marketing should be regulated. It is much easier for platforms such as Facebook to tag words and take down written content, but it is more difficult for them to police visual content on video-sharing platforms. However, surely, with a nudge from the Government to restrict this kind of marketing, the companies that have dominated the world with their technology and algorithms can start to work on verifying visual content and restricting HFSS ads.
This is the area where age-assurance legislation is urgently needed. Many noble Lords will know from the experience of their own children and grandchildren that it is only too easy for them to lie about their age to gain access to 16-24 content and game the system. If they can access adult content, they can also access inappropriate advertising. There is even a fear that platforms and advertisers will take this gaming of the system into account and make it part of their digital ad campaigns. I hope that the online safety Bill will legislate for age assurance. However, even if it does, I fear that it will still be four years until it is implemented. Action needs to be taken now to make platforms responsible for inappropriate adverts appearing to children. These amendments will be very useful in starting that process.
Thousands of hours of consultation have gone into introducing these restrictions, but, if the Government really want to reduce childhood obesity, they need to address the media that children are viewing: the video-sharing platforms. Unless the Government act now to bring responsibility and regulation to how children access these ads online, all this good work will be in vain.