Super sized kids: Obesity, children, moral panic, and the media

In the last few years, there has been an increasingly sensationalized public discourse about the “epidemic” of childhood obesity in the United States,. Recent headlines point to the seriousness of the problem ranging from “Parents Might Outlive Obese Children” (Gillis, 2005) to “Fat Kids ‘May Be Eating Away to Early Death’” (Sommerfeld, 2005). Reports about the future ill health of obese kids has led to a general hysteria over what the future will bring and the threat of high-profile obesity lawsuits has caused food companies to think hard about liability and public scrutiny. Together, these concerns have fueled the emergence of a moral panic about childhood obesity and have pointed to the media (television in particular) as the primary culprits corrupting children’s bodies.