Regulators are using outdated tools to combat the rising tide of advertisements promoting junk food to children online, public health experts have warned.

In a new report on the monitoring and restriction of digital marketing of unhealthy products to children the World Health Organization warns that as advertisers face tighter regulation on traditional media they are moving to the less-regulated world of social media and mobile devices, where advertisements are more difficult to monitor or track.

The report highlights the increasingly creative tactics employed by digital marketeers to lure children in.

These include using social media influencers and prominent YouTube personalities to promote products, and the introduction of “advergames” where children play online games developed by advertisers.

At the launch of the report João Breda, head of the WHO European office for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, said that public health experts were using "obsolete tools" to fight the rising tide of advertisements.