A campaign to encourage children to be more media savvy will be launched in Britain in June. The idea behind the Media Smart campaign is to help children interpret what they see in television advertisements so they can more clearly understand, among other things, the difference between what they see on television and reality.

Due to the overspill of television advertising between Britain and Ireland, children here may have an opportunity to see the television campaign, funded by advertisers including Hasbro and Masterfoods and the advertising industry's professional association in Britain, the Advertising Association.

On the face of it, it wouldn't appear to be in the best interests of advertisers to encourage children to behave like a class of junior media students, deconstructing advertising messages and looking beyond the hype. Appealing directly to children is the quickest way to open parents' purses. However, now more than ever, advertisers are keen to prove to the European Union that they are capable of acting responsibly, particularly in two areas - drink advertising and advertising directly aimed at children. In both these controversial areas, the EU has signalled that it may be time to review the advertising industry's power to self regulate. An EU working paper on marketing to children published last month said: "It is necessary to introduce a horizontal piece of legislation providing specific restrictions to commercial communications."

The Media Smart campaign is based on a Canadian model called "Concerned Children's Advertisers Initiative", which urges children through a mix of television advertising, educational material for schools and internet activity to "watch carefully, think critically, and navigate safely". The idea behind the campaign was to help children respond to advertising in a realistic way. "Everything you see on TV is constructed or created. So it is OK to ask questions about what you're seeing."

A new code of conduct for Irish advertisers came into force on the first of this month and it includes a revised section on children and advertising. Irish advertisers are now required to "have regard to the special characteristics of children in all their advertising likely to be seen or heard by children, whether or not the advertising is directed at them."

This new rule, according to the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland, which administers the code, will have particular relevance for the placement of advertising. How this code is interpreted remains to be seen but it could, for example, lead to the prohibition of advertising for alcohol on poster sites close to schools.

The code also stipulates that "advertisements addressed to children must not encourage an unhealthy lifestyle or unhealthy eating or drinking habits". Again it remains to be seen how this is interpreted, particularly as health professionals are increasingly expressing concern about the sugar and fat content of the foodstuffs advertised directly to children.