ANEMELO

The online experience of the current generation of children is unlike any other: they start earlier, they spend more time online and more of them are online. At the same time, today’s children are qualified as “digital naives” rather than “digital natives”: their digital literacy levels fall far behind their time spent online.
Online the digital naives are confronted with refined marketing techniques of the food and drinks industry. Having been curbed on traditional media channels, the food and drinks industry has free reign online. Children are invited into their branded online environments that are designed to be immersive. Children are won over by the display of cartoon characters, celebrities, games and entertaining videos. As a result, children are seduced to eat and drink refined carbohydrates and fructose-based products in a binge-like manner at a time that child obesity is at an all-time high.
Project ANEMELO helps teachers support their students’ chances in this rigged setting. Instead of blaming the victim, the project develops an Augmented Reality game that will help children understand the methods used by the food and drink industry by means of an experience rather than by a dry transfer of knowledge. The game will help children be more resilient to branded food and drinks content and products by raising their level of digital literacy.

The European project Augmented reality and new media against online promotion of unhealthy foods (ANEMELO) is co-financed by the European Commission (Erasmus+). News on ANEMELO is published on the ANEMELO Facebook page. News relevant for the ANEMELO project is Tweeted under hashtag #euANEMELO.