Advergames Affecting Dietary Habits of Children

Internet and videogames are transforming the dietary habits of children using a fairly less known medium called advergames. Understanding the addiction of children to such electronic media,the new breed of games are flooding the electronic market targeting children; these are advertisement embedded games, otherwise called as advergames.

Overweight and obesity in children poses significant health risk including susceptibility to hypertension and type 2 diabetes. There is an increasing awareness to reduce obesity and overweight in children. Such initiatives are very pertinent considering that fact that a third of our children are overweight or obese. One major cause of this health problem is the dietary habit of children, when children are fed high calorie food. Advergames may adversely affect children by influencing them to eat high calorie food.

The new electronic media play a significant role in promoting the sugary food culture among children, with the widespread use of video games by children. The new research shows that food advergames targeting children on their dietary attitudes and behaviors may profoundly affect their lifestyle. According to a study conducted by Michigan State University researchers advergames presented by companies participating in the industry’s self-regulatory program were more, rather than less, likely to contain a higher proportion of unhealthy foods than were similar games offered by non-participating companies.

As reported recently, scientists from UC Davis recommended an increased regulation of food companies that target youth by advergames. These scientists conducted a detailed content analysis of all food related website advertisement on the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon between August 2006 and March 2007 focusing on weekday after-school hours and Saturday mornings which are the most watched periods by children. They found that most commonly used strategy to encourage ongoing and return visits to websites advertised in these media was advergames, with a significant percent of the websites assessed included online games.

A social awareness coupled with governmental regulation may be required to curtail the unchecked growth of advergames targeting children.

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