Children of any age with access to YouTube can instantly view alcohol-related content and on average, 6% of the views of adult-orientated content are by 13 to 17 year olds, according to statistics released by London-based digital agency www.AccuraCast.com. See the press release here.
The research says that if a beer or spirits commercial has had 10 million views on YouTube, on average, 600,000 children under the age of 17 will have seen it. Not only is access to content simple but as YouTube is worldwide and largely unrestricted, underage children are also able to watch alcohol promotions that link booze to sports and music celebrities and even banned advertisements that promote alcohol as ‘cool’.
Farhad Divecha, MD of AccuraCast said “Our research shows that YouTube has lost control of its alcohol related content and that YouTube alcohol uploads currently break every social taboo and regulation in the book.”
The statistics follow on from a recent Alcohol Concern report New Media, New Problem? which called for greater controls on alcohol and tobacco content in social media networks. Alcohol Concern have since called on Facebook to take further action, including baning official alcohol brand pages.
Comments