Professor studies access to alcohol–related ads by minors on social media

Youth are being targeted with alcohol-related advertisements on social media platforms, according to new research by a Texas A&M University professor. Adam Barry, professor of health education, contends that youth – as young as 13 – have unrestricted access to alcohol advertising on social media platforms. Despite regulations which should limit advertising to youth, alcohol brands were even found to send alcohol advertisements directly to underage profiles on social media platforms such as Instagram. Due to a lack of published studies on the topic, Barry says he was curious about the direct engagement of today’s youth with different alcohol brands. “We wanted to see if an underage profile could view alcohol brand content and interact with that content directly from smartphones,” Barry says. He explains that alcohol brands are supposed to have an “age gate” system in place that restricts those under the minimum legal drinking age (21) from accessing and viewing their content. However, focusing specifically on Twitter and Instagram, he discovered that underage profiles had unfettered access to alcohol brand promotional pictures, videos and messages. “We made 10 fictitious profiles of various ages representing middle school, high school and college students, to see if we could engage in their advertising,” Barry notes. Barry then examined access among these profiles to 22 different alcohol brands, all of which have been identified as brands adolescents consume most often. “What we found is that on both sites, Twitter and Instagram, all underage profiles could view and completely interact with all posted alcohol content, like the content, and share posts with other profiles, such as retweeting. The Age Gate would only activate on Twitter if the user attempted to voluntarily follow an alcohol company. For Instagram, all underage profiles could follow every brand and ultimately receive promotional material directly to their smartphones.” By the end of the 30-day study, Barry says that his 10 media accounts had received hundreds of advertisements. To continue reading this article, purchase the January 14th edition of the Steel Country Bee, or go to our online e-edition at: http://www.etypeservices.com/Daingerfield%20BeeID312/default.aspx