Children are exposed to a huge amount of junk food advertising online, but there is a growing appetite for change, University of Newcastle nutrition expert Clare Collins says.
Research has shown that Australian children experience 17 food and beverage promotions an hour on their mobile devices. Most of this is junk-food marketing.
"Kids are being preyed on. Every parent should be angry about that," Laureate Professor Collins said.
She highlighted the figures amid a push in Canberra for a ban on junk food advertising to children.
The AMA [Australian Medical Association] NSW said on Friday that it was encouraged by reports this week that the Albanese government "may act to further crack down on junk food advertising".
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland suggested the matter is on the government's agenda.
Ms Rowland told The Australian Financial Review that the aim was to "strike that balance between community expectations, the sustainability of the sector and also minimising harms".
AMA NSW president Dr Michael Bonning said his organisation "strongly supports any government action to restrict the promotion of products and services that have the potential to cause harm".
This was especially so when it came to "the health of children and vulnerable people".
"There has been some action in restricting the times when fast food and sugary drink ads can be shown, but much more can be done," Dr Bonning said.
"Doctors are seeing every day the harms caused by the excessive consumption of junk food, with alarming rates of obesity and diabetes and other health and lifestyle impacts."
Dr Bonning said a strong link had been made between "dietary sugar consumption and diabetes, heart disease, cancer, liver disease and neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression and ADHD".
Federal independent MP Dr Sophie Scamps is pushing to regulate junk food advertising to children to address the obesity epidemic.
About a quarter of Australian children aged five to 14 are overweight or obese, and 8 per cent are obese, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data shows.
Dr Scamps is developing a private member's bill to regulate junk food advertising in online and traditional media.
She has highlighted that 40 countries - including the UK, Ireland, Chile, Norway, Mexico and Thailand - "already have or are planning to regulate junk food advertising".
Professor Collins said the more junk food ads children see, the "more likely they will become overweight or obese" and head towards "a life of chronic disease".
"Marketing is telling people what to eat," she said.
Nonetheless, she is excited that the issue is "being talked about in parliament".
"There is this feeling in Canberra that now is the time to go for change. The public want it," she said.
An Australia Institute study released last August found two in three Australians agree that junk food advertising should be banned during children's viewing hours.
Professor Collins spoke to the Parliamentary Friends of Nutrition in Canberra earlier this year.
She represented Dietitians Australia, discussing "ways we can get nutrition on the agenda more strongly".
"We should all get behind any efforts of our governments to ban junk food marketing to children," she said.
"If they won't ban it, at least put a huge whopping tax on it, so we can mop up some of these chronic diseases."
Funds should be diverted to "support our most vulnerable Australians, for whom it's harder to deal with the advertising onslaught".
The National Obesity Strategy, released last year, said "more than $550 million is spent annually by food companies on advertising food and non-alcoholic drinks in Australia".
Most of these ads promoted products "high in fat, sugar and salt".
"Unhealthy food and drinks make up 38.5 per cent of children's daily energy intake."
The strategy aims to reduce this to 20 per cent by 2030.
It also aims to increase the proportion of children "not exceeding the recommended intake" of sugar by 2030.
