title: Private governance, public purpose? Assessing transparency and accountability in self-regulation of food advertising to children.
abstract: Reducing non-core food advertising to children is an important priority in strategies to address childhood obesity. Public health researchers argue for government intervention on the basis that food industry self-regulation is ineffective; however, the industry contends that the existing voluntary scheme adequately addresses community concerns. This paper examines the operation of two self-regulatory initiatives governing food advertising to children in Australia, in order to determine whether these regulatory processes foster transparent and accountable self-regulation. The paper concludes that while both codes appear to establish transparency and accountability mechanisms, they do not provide for meaningful stakeholder participation in the self-regulatory scheme. Accordingly, food industry self-regulation is unlikely to reflect public health concerns or to be perceived as a legitimate form of governance by external stakeholders. If industry regulation is to remain a feasible alternative to statutory regulation, there is a strong argument for strengthening government oversight and implementing a co-regulatory scheme.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, F10 Eastern Avenue, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia. bhreeve@uni.sydney.edu.au
authors.forename: Belinda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Reeve
mesh_terms: D000329:Advertising / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000592:standards; D002648:Child; D019649:Food Industry / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000592:standards; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control; D011634:Public Health; D012941:Social Responsibility