Its report warns parents are often unaware of the
sheer volume of such adverts as they are precisely targeting children.
The WHO also
criticised governments for failing to keep up with a revolution in the way
people consume media.
Children's
doctors said strict measures were needed to stop childhood obesity.
The report
attacked the way some video bloggers - vloggers - get paid by junk food
retailers to promote their food.
It quotes a US analysis that suggests vloggers are now more
influential at promoting brands than film or TV because of perceived authenticity.
It also raised concern about the way fast food chains encourage
kids through their doors by making restaurants important locations in augmented reality
games like Pokemon Go.
And said data on
children - their age, location, likes and preferences - were being collected to
target them with junk food adverts.
Dr Joao Breda,
the WHO programme manager for nutrition, physical activity and obesity, told
the BBC News website: "It is going digital very strongly and we know that
existing models of regulation have holes and gaps that don't cover the needs of
our children.
"We think
it's huge, but parents don't know - sometimes they don't realise their children
are being exposed.
"You could
argue that is it more dangerous [than traditional media like TV]."
Some countries
such as the UK have introduced rules to protect children from junk-food
advertising such as bans during children's television, however, the report said
regulation had "failed to keep up with the pace and scope of change in the
media".
On Thursday,figures in England showed nearly one-in-five children
were obese when they left primary school.
"With the
obesogenic environment they are living in today, it really isn't a
surprise," said Prof Russell Viner, from the UK's Royal College of
Paediatrics and Child Health.
He added:
"It is reprehensible that children are targeted online, through billboard
advertising and on television as they watch their favourite shows."
Prof Viner said
there needed to be "strict measures put in place to protect" children
anourced that governments needed to act urgently to prevent "marketers
cynically targeting children online, on our streets and on television".
Dr Alison
Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England, said: "Our evidence
review shows that all forms of advertising and marketing - including the use of
characters, advergames and digital marketing - affect the balance of children's
diets."
The organisation
is currently reviewing what foods and drinks can be advertised to children.
Source:
.bbc.com
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