Children's Obesity Increases, Britain Again Bans Viewing Fast Food Ads

JAKARTA - The UK will again implement a ban on the display of junk food advertisements (high-fat, salt and sugar/HFSS), which will take effect on October 1, 2025. The ban includes advertisements on TV before 9 p.m. and a ban on total paid online advertisements for junk food products.

This policy is carried out with the aim of overcoming the child obesity crisis that occurs. It is known, more than one in five children in the UK are overweight or obese, so the role of junk food advertisements is considered a significant step to overcome it.

"We want to see that those people are more informed, better able to make choices and don't have ads served to them all the time," said Vale of Glamorgan board member Rhiannon Birch, quoted by the BBC, on Friday, September 5, 2025.

The UK's junk food advertisement ban has been introduced using the authority in the 2022 Health and Social Care Act.

With the ban on advertising, it will limit children's exposure to unhealthy food marketing, which is considered vulnerable to the ad.

The ban is also part of a broader effort to encourage reformulation and innovation of healthier products in the food industry for public health, especially children.

Products that are subject to advertising restrictions are included in one of the 13 catateries and are also classified as "unhealthy" in the local government's assessment system.

The analysis is related to nutrients including salt, fat, sugar, and protein. Products that include a ban include fast food, snacks, as well as pastries, packaged bullion, to sweet yogurt.