BGC welcomes new online advertising rules
The UK government has announced new rules on illegal advertising.
UK.- The trade lobby group the Betting and Gaming Council has welcomed the UK government’s announcement of new rules on illegal advertising and the promotion of age-restricted products online. The measures will require websites and social media platforms to do more to prevent minors from seeing adverts for gambling and alcohol.
The government said it would use legislative and non-legislative measures to enforce new rules requiring that social media platforms have “proportionate systems and processes” to prevent illegal adverts and to control the reach of age-restricted content.
Creative industries minister Sir John Whittingdale said: “Advertising is a huge industry in which Britain is a world leader. However, as online advertising has taken a steadily bigger share, the rules governing it have not kept pace and so we intend to strengthen them to ensure consumers are properly protected.
“Our plans will shut down the scammers using online adverts to con people out of their cash and will stop damaging and inappropriate products being targeted at children. We will make sure that our proposed regulation helps keep people safe while supporting and enhancing the legitimate advertising industry so it can maximise its innovation and potential.”
The government says it will conduct consultations on the new rules after publication as well as a consultation on potential legislation to decide details such as which regulator will oversee them. Whittingdale will lead a task force that will aim to gather evidence on advertising and develop industry initiatives. Other members will be Mark Lund, chair of the Advertising Standards Board of Finance (ASBF), and representatives of the Advertising Standards Authority, tech trade bodies and consumer groups.
Lund said: “UK advertising is a dynamic engine for the UK economy because it’s creative and trusted. So, I’m delighted to be helping lead in the task force’s role in strengthening industry’s response to illegal harms advertising and the protection of children online, building on the long-term success of the ASA and the self-regulation system in keeping both trust and creativity at world-leading levels.”
BGC response
The BGC welcomed the measures, especially those relating to social media, saying they would help protect young people from harm. It had been calling for such changes, arguing that more cooperation from social media platforms was needed to effectively age restrict gambling advertising.
CEO Michael Dugher said: “We strongly welcome these new measures set out by Sir John Whittingdale MP which will do more to protect children and young people from seeing age restricted adverts.
“It follows our calls on the government to do more in this area, because we recognised change was needed. BGC Members have already taken big steps to ensure adverts by our members only reach the right audiences. This new guidance from the government will ensure that the platforms are required to do the same.
“Our members look forward to continuing to drive higher standards, whilst investing in jobs and businesses in the UK.”
The BGC now wants to see social media operators introduce a tool to prevent betting ads from being seen by users of the GAMSTOP self-exclusion system. It also argues that more work is needed regarding advert frequency.
This month, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) published an update on its 100 Children Report into children’s exposure to advertising for age-restricted products, including gambling. It noted a significant improvement but said that better age verification measures were still needed.
The original report in November said that the ASA had monitored a panel of 97 children over one week, in which they received 11,424 online ads. Some 435 (3.8 per cent) of these related to alcohol, gambling or other age-restricted content.
