Decline in underage exposure to gambling ads in Q3, ASA reports

The latest report from the Advertising Standards Authority reveals that the number of gambling ads that breach age-restricted advertising rules fell in the third quarter. Some 70 ads were identified as breaching the rules in the second quarter, while that number dropped to just five ads in the third quarter of 2020.

Only 5 gambling ads violate age restriction rules for ads in third quarter

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK published on Friday this week report behind third quarter. According to a recent report, the ASA identified a total of 127 age-restricted ads for advertising violations. With this in mind, only 5 gambling ads from 3 gambling operators, appearing in 6 websites, broke advertising rules in the third quarter of 2020. In addition, no violations were found in YouTube channels. The Authority considered the results for gaming operators as "encouraging".

The latest report includes the period from July to September 2020 and is part of a year-long project to prevent and reduce children's exposure to age-restricted advertising. "Overview monitoring" includes both websites and YouTube channels.

"We encourage you to watch advertisers, especially in the gaming industry, taking steps to responsibly target age-restricted online ads."

Guy Parker, chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority

For this project, the ultimate goal of the ASA is to reducing children's exposure to inappropriate online advertising concerning gambling, alcohol, e-cigarettes and tobacco, weight loss and weight management products, and foods and soft drinks classified as high-fat and salt. or sugar (HFSS products).

The ASA noted that gambling advertisements in the Q3 2020 report. Significantly reduced. In fact, in the second quarter around 70 age-restricted adverts were identified as breaking the rules , while in the third quarter the number dropped to 5. In addition, the ASA revealed that operators who broke the rules during the national blockade, did not appear in the third quarter report.

In addition, the ASA reported that a number of operators had been contacted prior to the start of the project and had they take more time to prepare ads to avoid children. With this in mind, ASA hopes that this positive trend will be reflected in other sectors.

ASA finds 102 HFSS ads violate advertising rules

To carry out the monitoring, ASA used a sample of 49 websites and 7 YouTube channels. With this in mind, the Authority highlighted that a recent report did not draw conclusions about the rate of children's exposure to age-restricted channels. Instead, the report presents the number of infringements identified.

Surprisingly, the highest number of violations for age-restricted ads were flagged as HFSS commercials. Bottom line 102 such ads violated the rules. However, about half of the products were labeled as " technical violation"which is unlikely to appeal to children. In this category was 35 advertisers and a total of 27 sites and 4 YouTube channels, which the ASA said broke advertising rules.

With reference to the Q3 report, 14 weight-loss ads were found to be in violation of the rules. The ads came from 2 advertisers and appeared on 8 websites and 1 YouTube channel. According to the ASA In Q3 2020, 6 different alcohol ads broke the rules . The ads came from 4 brands and appeared on 2 websites and 3 YouTube channels.

Guy Parker, chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority, wrote in a statement that It is encouraging to see how advertisers are taking steps in to responsibly target age-restricted online ads. He stressed that this trend is expected to continue. Parker said the Authority will continued cooperation with advertisers and will take action "where necessary to build a culture of zero tolerance for age-restricted advertising on sites aimed at children.".