Key issues for discussion in the Children and Young People’s Advertising Code

12 July 2022

With the launch of our planned review of the Children and Young People’s Advertising Code today, we thought we would highlight some of the key issues that have been raised with us directly or highlighted through our complaints process.

1. Age definitions: In the current code, children are defined as being those under 14 years. Young people are defined as those 14 to under 18 years of age. Some people think that the definition of a child should be raised to those under 16 years of age or changed so that it incorporates everyone under the age of 18.
2. Audience threshold: Ads placed in media with robust data to show the audience is less than 25% children and/or young people or tools that are used to select audiences who are over the age of either 14 or 18 are deemed to not be targeting them. Some think this threshold should be lower. In the recent Alcohol Advertising and Promotion Code the audience threshold of 20% of minors was introduced.
3. Brand advertising: Some of the rules in the current code only apply to ads for products or services, and do not apply to brand advertising (advertising which only promotes a company name). The Codes Committee are keen to hear submissions on whether brand advertising should be included in the revised code.
4. Sponsorship advertising: While the ASA does not have jurisdiction over commercial sponsorship agreements, ads that refer to – or feature – an occasional food or beverage product sponsorship agreement are covered by the current code. Should the revised code extend to other sponsorship ads?

Submissions on the code close on 31 August 2022. Have your say today.

To help in your submission process, you are welcome to either:

• Fill out the full Submission Form here.
• If you don’t have time to fill out the full document, you’re welcome to send us an email at asa@asa.co.nz with your thoughts.

For any questions about the code review, please get in touch.