My Department is, at present, finalising codes of broadcast advertising which I hope to introduce very shortly under the provisions of section 4 of the Broadcasting Act, 1990. The codes will, inter alia, give effect to advertising standards which are contained in Article 16 of the Council Directive 89/552 on transfrontier broadcasting activities. The article provides that television advertising shall not cause moral or physical detriment to minors and prohibits directly exhorting minors to buy a product or service by exploiting their inexperience or credulity; encouraging minors to persuade their parents or others to purchase the goods or services being advertised; exploiting the special trust minors place in parents, teachers or other persons, and unreasonably showing minors in dangerous situations.
I should also add that RTE's existing code of practice gives extensive guidelines on advertising and children which already take on board the provisions of the Directive. The core element of the RTE guidelines is that no method of advertising may be employed which takes advantage of the natural credulity and sense of loyalty of children.
The content of such advertising is a matter for the broadcasters to decide in the context of the codes mentined above. In my view these measures, particularly with the statutory backing of the codes which, as I said, I hope to introduce shortly, is sufficient to protect the vulnerability of viewers and to ensure a satisfactory degree of responsibility on the part of advertisers and broadcasters.