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.
