2020英语教学资源：时文阅读|儿童成为网上垃圾食品广告的目标群体

ONLINE JUNK-FOOD ADS 'TARGETING CHILDREN

儿童成为网上垃圾食品广告的目标群体

From spreading fake news to fuelling online bullying, social media is under increasing fire. The question of how to develop its potential while limiting its negative effects is one of the biggest of our age. And its effects on children’s physical and mental health is perhaps one of the greatest challenges. Yet among all this debate about how social media has changed our lives, children’s exposure to advertising on social media is rarely discussed.

Advertising to children is widely regarded as ethically (道德上) problematic. Young children cannot distinguish between advertising and editorial, or entertainment, content. Older children, even if they can understand the selling intention behind advertising, are often still subject to its unconscious influence.

Junk food advertising, which is linked to weight gain and obesity (过度肥胖), sharpens this ethical issue. Governments have a duty to protect the best interests of children. Yet very few countries have regulated junk food advertising effectively.

Regulators do seek to protect children from the harmful effects of TV advertising. However, they typically focus on advertising “targeted especially at” children. This has proved to be far too narrow. Most ads that children see in broadcast media or the physical environment do not specifically “target” them. They are shown during family TV programs, on billboards and bus shelters, or around sports fields where children watch their teams play.

Since 2010, the WHO has repeatedly stressed that children’s overall exposure to junk food marketing needs to be reduced, wherever it’s encountered. And now, as the broadcast era is dominated by social media, people are becoming even more concerned that advertising junk food to children is not healthy — and not ethical.

Social media platforms hold a vast database (数据库) on all their users, offering advertisers detailed menus of options for targeting ads. They do so not only with age and location, but even with psychological characteristics and preferences. The platforms identify children who are most interested in junk food and its advertising, thereby influencing them more easily.

Yet the very means of targeting children with ads on social media now provides regulators with an opportunity. Ireland’s Department of Health adopted a new code of practice (行业准则). The code states that “marketing communications for HFSS (high fat, salt and sugar) food by means of social media shall not target children under the age of 15.”

It remains to be seen how the code will apply. It is only voluntary, and there is uncertainty about the accuracy of age information on social media. However, this is a significant advance on recent online junk food marketing restrictions, as it applies to all social media.

（节选自the Independent）

 

1. According to the author, the biggest problem with junk food advertising regulation is that ______.

A. the authorities do not protect children from the negative effects of advertising

B. the authorities only focus on the ads designed to attract children’s attention

C. the authorities develop unrealistic policies on advertising

D. the authorities do not have the right to punish social media platforms

2. Paragraph 6 mainly talks about ______.

A. why social media advertising has developed quickly in recent years

B. what social media platforms know about their users

C. how children will be affected by junk food advertising on social media

D. why junk food advertising on social media has a bad effect on children

3. The author’s attitude towards Ireland’s code of practice is ______.

A. positive

B. negative

C. objective

D. unclear

 

单词：

1. fake adj. not real and seeming to be sth. it is not, in order to deceive people 假的，伪造的

2. editorial  n. a piece of writing in a newspaper that gives the editor’s opinion about sth., rather than reporting facts 社论，社评

3. sharpen★ v. to make a feeling stronger and more urgent 使（某种感觉）增强，加强

4. regulate v. to control an activity or process, especially by rules （尤指通过规章）控制，管理

→ regulator n. 管理者，监管者

5. specifically adv. relating to or intended for one particular type of person or thing only 特定地，专门地

→ specific adj. 特定的，具体的

6. encounter v. to experience sth., especially problems or opposition 遇到，遭遇（尤指问题或反对）

7. characteristic  n. a quality or feature of sth. or sb. that is typical of them and easy to recognize 特征，特性

8. identify /aI'dentIfaI/ v. to recognize and correctly name sb. or sth. 认出，识别

→ identification n. 识别，鉴定

 

答案：1.B  2.D  3.C