According to youth health charity Bite Back, Britain’s largest fast food chains have been using social media to advertise junk food to young people.

The charity highlights that social media is outside the reach of the advertising rules, which stipulate companies can no longer buy ads online or on TV before 9pm for less healthy food and drink.

Bite Back analysed three months worth of Instagram and TikTok posts from the top 10 food chains popular with young people including KFC, Domino’s and McDonald’s.

D’Arcy Williams, Bite Back CEO, said: “This report punctures any suggestions that big food are passive actors when it comes to our food system and children’s health.

“Politicians rightly celebrated progress on advertising restrictions earlier this year, but too little done too late means that brands continue to expose young people to unhealthy food and drink marketing on their phones, following them everywhere they go. This isn’t accidental; industry tactics are deliberately targeting young people in spaces that aren’t properly regulated.”

Its research showed 72 per cent of all food posts featured products high in fat, sugar or salt and 80 per cent of posts used tactics that it believed were specifically designed to appeal to young people including influencer partnerships and branded merchandise lines.

The research also highlighted that McDonald’s was the only brand to restrict access to its Instagram account of under-16s.

A youth activist for Biteback Sienna, 17, from Wolverhampton said: “It feels like we are being taken advantage of in the fight against junk food, which targets us through trends and hashtags. Social media corporations need to be held accountable, because protecting child health shouldn’t be an option – it should be standard.”

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