Digifood
The Digifood project uses a children-centric citizen science methodology to record and evaluate the exposure of children to food advertisements through popular digital social media platforms, with a focus on ultra-processed foods marketing.
The digital environment and the behaviour of children in the web (e.g., self-produced digital content for use in social media) are novel challenges that are currently receiving more attention with regards to their association with children’s health. The Digifood project focuses on describing the extend of marketing of ultra-processed foods (such as fast foods and sugary drinks) in these settings, especially amongst children. Using crowd sourcing and citizen science principles, the project will investigate the frequency of advertisements promoting relevant products and services, as well as the frequency of similar food contend being shared and accessed by the users themselves.
Using a dedicated smartphone app (Arbisense AB), the project involves children in a central role as data collectors, asking them to contribute screenshots of the digital food advertisements and digital food contend that they encounter during their everyday use of social media platforms using their mobiles. The collected dataset will be analysed with regards to the prevalence of ultra-processed food promotion, in parallel with secondary analyses that will look into the most frequently advertised food-related companies and food items in Sweden. In addition, the project will invite the children themselves to participate in focus group interviews motivating them to share their own experiences relevant to food advertising through social media, asking them to communicate relevant thoughts and reflections.
The study is conducted in collaboration with UNICEF Sweden and Hjärt- och lungfonden and is a continuation effort of the successful Unifood project. Arbisense AB supports the dedicated digital tool development and the automatic data handling and analysis.