Marketing to kids just changed. Many affiliate programs are still catching up.

Earlier this year, the UK Government introduced tighter restrictions on how HFSS (High Fat, Sugar and Salt) products can be marketed, particularly to children.

As a parent of two young children, I see first-hand how food marketing shows up in their world. It’s not just TV, it’s every time they pick up a tablet. And that’s exactly why these changes matter.

The intention is clear: reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food advertising, limit where and when these products can be promoted, and increase accountability for brands.

On paper, it makes complete sense. The challenge is that marketing doesn’t operate in neat, controlled channels anymore.

A growing proportion of it now happens outside of what brands fully control, through affiliate partners, influencers, content sites, sub-networks and third-party publishers. That’s where things start to get more complex. Brands might have strong internal compliance processes, but those don’t always extend cleanly across the wider partner ecosystem.

At the same time, the landscape has shifted significantly. Research by the Obesity Health Alliance suggests that children are exposed to far more food marketing online than through traditional broadcast channels.

The Advertising Standards Authority continues to uphold rulings against brands for misleading or non-compliant advertising, often in digital environments where oversight is much harder. And according to Ofcom, children are spending more time on platforms where advertising is less obvious, more embedded, and easier to miss.

Put simply, the channels HFSS regulation is trying to control are no longer the only channels that matter.

From what I see day to day, most brands aren’t ignoring compliance, far from it. Many are already taking steps: tightening partner approval, reviewing affiliate activity more closely, and in some cases pausing relationships until they’re confident HFSS isn’t an issue.

The challenge is that these efforts are often built around what brands can see and control directly. But you can’t control what you can’t see.

Affiliate content changes constantly. Influencer posts go live without prior approval. Partner sites sit outside immediate visibility. Traffic is routed through sub-networks with limited transparency. It doesn’t take much for something to slip through the cracks.

As a parent, I want these regulations to work. I want my kids to be exposed to less of this kind of content. But from a practical standpoint, it’s easy to see how non-compliant activity can still happen, even with the right intentions.

That’s why HFSS regulation isn’t just a legal or policy issue anymore. It’s a visibility problem.

The real question isn’t whether your campaigns are compliant. It’s whether you know how your brand is being promoted across every channel.

Because if you don’t, that’s where the real risk sits.