SENACON OPENS PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON CHILD ADVERTISING REGULATION

On January 15, 2020, the National Consumer Secretariat (“SENACON”) of the Ministry of Justice and Public Safety, initiated a public consultation on the draft of the ordinance about child advertising.

Suggestions and comments on the draft may be sent to SENACON by January 31, 2020, through an online form.

The draft of the ordinance is guided by the protection of children and adolescents, qualifying them as hypervulnerable.

In addition to presenting the concept of “advertisement”, the draft proposes examples of what cannot be featured in advertisements. For example, children or elements from a child’s world cannot be used in advertisements to directly appeal to other children and their participation may only be allowed for relevant product or service demonstrations.

The draft also presents guidelines to be observed regarding advertising of children’s products, such as the positive development of parent-child, student-teacher relationships, in addition to determining that the placement of advertisements aimed at children should be restricted to commercial breaks, whatever the means of delivery.

Finally, the proposed draft also sets out the criteria that should be used to assess the conformity of advertisements and establishes specific stipulations for certain product categories such as soft drinks, firearms, alcoholic beverages and pharmaceuticals.