The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has extended the children’s advertising code to cover all advertising directed at children.
“The Code is no longer limited to advertising for children’s products and will provide critical protections around any advertising directed at children,” said AANA CEO Josh Faulks (pictured) said.
“It places a clear ban on directing advertising of hazardous products to children such as vapes, kava or highly caffeinated drinks. It also prohibits the encouragement of unsafe practices, including bullying or
promoting unhealthy body image, and the use of sexual appeal or imagery when communicating to children.”
The new Code also hones in on the rise of kidfluencers and influencer advertising directed at children.
“The rules go beyond Australian Consumer Law recognising the subtle, embedded nature of influencer advertising directed at children which research says lowers children’s ability to recognise it as advertising. It must now be immediately clear to a child that they are interacting with advertising content,” Faulks said.
The new Code will come into effect on 1 December this year and applies to all advertising across all media channels at all times of the day.
AANA has said that it will provide “comprehensive training to the industry” to support the rollout of the new rules.
