We are facing a global nutrition crisis, with an estimated 93 million children (5-14-years) and 81 million young people (15-24-years) living with obesity. As food environments become increasingly shaped by corporate influence, particularly through digital platforms, the autonomy of young people is being redefined.

Australia appears to be one of the first countries globally where a food delivery platform, Uber Eats, has formally introduced a teen-specific feature, legitimising adolescents as independent users within digital food environments. In the United States, DoorDash offers discounted subscriptions for college students and in India, Swiggy use gamified and youth-driven campaigns, reflecting a broader industry trend toward targeting younger users. While framed as empowering, these initiatives raise important questions: what kind of autonomy are we enabling, and in what kind of food environment?

The global online food delivery market is projected to reach a revenue of US$1.4 trillion. These companies’ decisions shape now what millions of young people see and choose to consume daily.

While food companies often defend their practices under the banner of ‘freedom of choice’, this argument obscures reality: corporate actors are actively shaping and saturating the food environment to favour unhealthy choices, casting a wide net that public health efforts struggle to penetrate. The commercial determinants of unhealthy diets have created an environment where young people’s autonomy is distorted by corporate influence.

The online food delivery company tactics reflects a broader corporate trend worldwide: targeting young people as a unique market demographic.  Whether through digital marketing, influencer advertising, or app-based purchasing, food companies and the food delivery apps that amplify their reach are increasingly embedding themselves in the lives of young people and doing so under the guise of “choice” and “convenience.”

Food delivery apps have become a new frontier in this landscape. With fast food chains prominently featured, algorithmic suggestions skewed toward unhealthy choices, and marketing tailored to young users, these platforms are contributing to a food environment that undermines health. For young people navigating independence, these environments are not supportive.

In response to these challenges in the digital world, recommended public health policies have rightly focused on protection-oriented strategies, such as restricting marketing to young people. These measures are essential and have a strong evidence base for reducing harm. Yet despite global endorsement, these policies remain poorly implemented across food delivery platforms. As highlighted in recent analyses, there is a significant regulatory gap.

While governments and research bodies may not yet view young people as a powerful group to engage, corporate companies do, recognising them as a key market and investing heavily to influence their choices.

This contrast in approach is telling. Commercial platforms like online food delivery companies engage young people by offering autonomy – allowing them to make decisions independently, even without parental oversight. In contrast, many public health policies are developed for young people, without their input, in the name of protection. The success of commercial programs provides a critical lesson: when young people are given independence and treated as decision-makers, engagement follows.

Even when policies are pursued, they are too often developed without engaging young people in the process. While these policy recommendations mostly target broader food environments and childhood obesity, they rarely include young people in shaping solutions. When youth perspectives are excluded, policies risk becoming paternalistic, overlooking the insights, creativity, and leadership that young people bring.

Young people themselves are not standing idly by. Youth-led movements are already pushing back against unhealthy food systems. For example, the UK-based Bite Back campaign, powered by youth activists, calls for a “commercial break” from relentless junk food marketing. Their “Give Us A Commercial Break” campaign exposes the saturation of unhealthy food ads in underserved communities and challenges decision-makers to act.

The group also helped expose a breach of the UK’s junk food advertising code, when a Just Eat advertisement featuring McDonald’s was found to inappropriately appeal to children, a clear example of how corporate marketing sidesteps regulation while youth advocates hold them to account.

The Adolescent Wellbeing Framework outlines key pillars of adolescent health: supportive environments, opportunities to contribute, and meaningful participation in decisions that affect their lives. Good health and nutrition are deeply interconnected with all three, yet today’s food environments often undermine them. Ensuring that young people can thrive means not only protecting their wellbeing but also enabling them to actively shape the systems that influence it.

As a community, we can align our work with this vision by:

• Investing in youth leadership: supporting initiatives that build advocacy, communication, and research skills
• Involving diverse young people in research: not just as participants, but as co-designers and co-authors
• Supporting advocacy: insights are heard, valued, and acted upon in public health research and policy

Meaningful progress in addressing the global nutrition crisis will not be possible without the leadership and involvement of young people. When young people are meaningfully engaged in research and policy, that means, paid, credited, and genuinely listened to, their contributions have the potential to lead to more inclusive, effective, and sustainable solutions. As the influence of big food companies and the platforms that accelerate their reach continues to grow, so too does the urgency to centre young people’s perspectives in the systems that shape their health.

That includes calling out corporate strategies that undermine health, and advocating for systems that support agency in meaningful, health-promoting ways. Young people don’t just need protection – they need power. Power to question, advocate, and co-create healthier food systems.

Authors: Stephanie R. Partridge is an Associate Professor, Sydney Horizon Fellow and National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow; Sisi Jia is a Research Fellow, Allyson R. Todd is a PhD Candidate and Research Officer, Elena Wang is a Youth Advisor, Sara Wardak is a Young Person and Research Assistant, Rebecca Raeside is a Research Fellow. All are members of the Youth Well Lab at Faculty of Medicine and Health and Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney. Stephanie and Sisi contributed equally.

Competing interests: none

Handling Editor: Neha Faruqui