School’s In Session: Rules For Marketers And Advertisers When Advertising To Children In Canada

Every August, the backpacks, lunch kits, running shoes and duotangs (assuming tablets have not yet rendered them obsolete) reappear on shopping lists, along with the marketing campaigns designed to make children want them.

Back-to-school is one of the biggest child-facing marketing moments of the year. It is also one of the easiest to get wrong.

That is because advertising to children plays by a different set of rules in Canada. Children are treated as a particularly vulnerable audience, and advertisers have to account for the fact that younger consumers may not recognize when they are being advertised to or approach a sales pitch with the same discernment as an adult.

And if your campaign reaches Quebec? You may have to think again.

Of course, these rules don’t disappear once the school supplies are put away! From holiday toy launches and food promotions to gaming, apps and influencer content, the same considerations apply to child-facing advertising year-round.

So, before the next toy launch, snack campaign, gaming promotion or back-to-school ad goes live, here’s what you need to know to make sure your campaign gets an A+ in compliance.

One country, several rulebooks

There is no single Canadian rulebook for advertising to children. Instead, advertisers must navigate a mix of legislation and industry self-regulatory codes, sometimes all at once.

And just to make sure everyone is paying attention in class, they do not all agree on who counts as a “child”. The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards and the Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children deem a child to be a person under 12 years of age, while the Code for the Restriction of Food and Beverage Product Advertising to Children and Quebec’s ban against advertisements to children apply to children under 13 years old.

Here are the main frameworks to have on your syllabus:

1. The Canadian Code: Kids aren't just smaller adults

The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards is a self-regulatory instrument administered by self-regulatory body, Ad Standards. Although it is not legislation, it still has real teeth: consumer complaints can result in ads being amended or withdrawn, and adverse decisions may be published. It applies to advertising across virtually every medium and is intended to provide a baseline for industry practice across Canada.

Under Clause 12, the rule for advertising to children is straightforward: don't take advantage of their credulity, lack of experience or sense of loyalty, and don't show them anything that could cause physical, emotional or moral harm.

The accompanying interpretation guideline fills in the details, covering everything from pricing and comparisons to premiums, endorsements and safety.

2. The Children’s Code: Do your homework before going on air

The Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children (the “Children’s Code”) is another self-regulatory code administered by Ad Standards. It sets out detailed rules for broadcast advertising directed to children under 12 years of age. Although it is not legislation, compliance is typically required as a condition of a licence or order imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (the “CRTC”) under the Broadcasting Act, giving the Code practical force—if you don’t comply, you don’t get air time.

Before a children's commercial hits television or radio, it must be reviewed and approved by Ad Standards' Children's Clearance Committee and receive a valid clearance number.

Under the Children’s Code, children’s advertising must comply with various requirements aimed at ensuring that, amongst other things, the product being promoted is portrayed accurately, that the advertisement does not directly urge children to buy or ask their parents to buy a product, and that certain comparisons are avoided.

3. The Food and Beverage Code: Rules worth digesting

The Code for the Restriction of Food and Beverage Product Advertising to Children, refreshed in January 2026, generally prohibits advertising a food or beverage product in a manner primarily directed at children, unless the product meets specified nutritional criteria.

The updated Code also restricts product placement or integration with regards to food products in content primarily directed at children, and provides that regardless of the nutritional profile of the food product at issue, no advertising of such products is permitted in elementary or middle schools. It also creates an exemption to the general prohibition for educational or charitable causes, and provides that sponsorship or advertising a brand, without featuring a specific product, is not prohibited.

In other words: if the creative is for kids and the product is edible, you should think twice before the bell rings on your campaign.

4. Children and privacy: Parents get a say

Canadian privacy law is of broad application, and applies to processing the personal information of children, as well as that of adults. A central feature of these laws is the requirement for informed consent —with the consent standard being that it must be reasonable to believe that the individual whose information is being processed will be able to understand the “nature, purpose, and consequences” of what they are agreeing to.

How can such informed consent be obtained from a young child with limited understanding and experience?

According to the Federal Privacy Commissioner, in almost all cases, it cannot. Instead, the collection, use and disclosure of the personal information of children under 13 will require the express consent of their parents or guardians, in all but exceptional cases. In Quebec, the provincial privacy law sets a higher standard, and requires parental or tutor consent to collect the personal information of children under 14, unless the collection is clearly for the child’s benefit.

Given this, advertisers should take a careful look at the information collection and processing practices of child-directed campaigns. Practices that may be common for adult-directed advertising, such as behaviourally targeted marketing, may not be appropriate or possible for child-directed advertising or websites, with the Federal Privacy Commissioner stating: “organizations should avoid tracking children and tracking on websites aimed at children”.

5. Quebec’s Consumer Protection Act: No easy passing grade

In Quebec, the rules are much more restrictive. Here, it’s not a question of how or what businesses can advertise to kids. Rather, under Quebec’s Consumer Protection Act (“CPA”), commercial advertising directed at children under 13 is prohibited, subject only to very limited exceptions.

And the ban is broad. It applies across media, including digital advertising (such as social media), and in addition to the advertiser, also applies to the ad agency, the media carrying the message, and other parties involved in the process of creating or disseminating the ad.

So how do you know whether an ad is “directed at” children, and thus prohibited in Quebec? There is no multiple-choice answer. The CPA requires that three factors be considered when making this assessment:

• The nature and intended purpose of the goods advertised:

  what are you selling? For example, children are more likely to be interested in candy or video games than in cleaning products or financial services. Note here that even products that are not specifically intended for children, but could be of interest to them, could be captured here.

• The manner in which the ad is presented:

  how are you promoting the goods? For example, a video featuring children in a school yard, using vocabulary that is accessible and understandable to kids, or one featuring animals, cartoon characters, or whimsy and magic, will likely be appealing to children. A video showing adults sitting around a boardroom table discussing quarterly results will likely be of less interest to children.

• The time and place the ad is shown:

  where and when is the advertisement shown, and how likely is it that children will make up a significant part of the audience? For example, children are likely to see a poster displayed in a shopping mall, but not one on the bathroom stall in a bar.

These three criteria are cumulative; no one of them is determinative in itself. Rather, they must be assessed together in order to determine whether any specific ad is considered directed at children, and thus prohibited in Quebec.

As noted above, there are a few exceptions. For example, under the CPA, advertising directed at children is often permitted if it appears in a children’s magazine (subject to strict requirements), is for a children’s program or show, or “is constituted by a store window, a display, a container, a wrapping or a label”. In all of these cases, however, the ad must comply with specific requirements. Take packaging, for example. It may fall within an exception, but that does not give advertisers free rein to turn the box into a pint-sized sales pitch. If the material encourages a child to buy the product, or to ask someone else to buy it, the exception can disappear.

And the consequences of getting it wrong have become harder to ignore. Since amendments to the CPA came into force in January 2025, the potential penalties have increased significantly. For businesses, fines now start at $5,000 and can reach $125,000, or an amount equal to 5% of worldwide turnover for the preceding fiscal year, whichever is greater. Directors and officers may also face liability unless they can establish they undertook due diligence to prevent the offence. All of this is in addition to the risk of class action litigation, which is ever-present in Quebec. This risk is particularly high with regard to advertising of junk food directed at children, due to active advocacy groups.

This is one subject where you really don’t want a failing grade.

The final bell

When it comes to advertising to children, compliance works best when it is built into the campaign early, not bolted on at the end. The biggest challenges often arise when legal considerations are addressed only after the creative, media plan or launch strategy has already been finalized.

Bringing compliance into the conversation from the beginning can help avoid costly last-minute changes, roadblocks and reputational headaches while still leaving plenty of room for creative campaigns.

Canada's requirements for advertising to children are layered, and Quebec adds a particularly strict regime to the mix. And with increased scrutiny of child-directed marketing, advertisers cannot afford to treat these rules as an afterthought.

Because the kids may get a summer break, but these rules don't.

Read the original article on GowlingWLG.com