Southern Health-Sante Sud wants to make parents aware of a bill designed to prohibit food and beverage marketing directed at children under the age of twelve.

Bill S-228 is an amendment of the Food and Drug Act.

Randi Bourke is a Healthy Living Facilitator and says it's important information.

"Kids under the age of 5 can't distingush ads from unbiased programming," says Bourke. "Those under 8 don't understand the intent of the marketing messages and they believe what they see. Many people argue that it's ethically wrong to market unhealthy food to kids who are hard-wired to trust us."

She says the bill has passed in the House of Commons but it has not become law. She says the bill has stalled.

"What's happened is it's been held up by industry lobbyists so it hasn't come into effect yet and we're not even sure if it's going to come into effect," says Bourke. "This worries a lot of people in the health industry because it's so important."

One question being asked locally was whether sport sponsorships would be affected, but Bourke says there will be an exemption to the legislation at the community level.

She says if parents want to get more information, they can go to the website StopMarketingToKids.ca.