Hey kid - you wanna buy a ...

"One family in isolation cannot counter a $15 billion industry," Dr. Linn says.

"And regulators simply aren't doing enough," she adds. "It's not just that children are consuming. They are being consumed."

Hence the title of Linn's new book, "Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood," in which she asserts that children are now the focus of a marketing maelstrom. In an ideal world, Linn would ban all marketing aimed at kids.

This may sound radical, she says, but when considered in the context of many other countries, she adds, where regulations are often much more stringent than in the US, it's really not.

America may not be Sweden, where marketing is banned to children under 12. But Linn is not ready to throw up her hands just yet. She is encouraged by growing awareness and activism in groups like her own, the Coalition to Stop Commercial Exploitation of Children, which she founded with Levin in 2000.

Even though SCEC has been around for a while, she says, interest has never been stronger. "People are starting to realize they are not alone, and to believe there is something they can do."

Linn even goes so far as to call the recent surge in ad-busting activism a "growing social movement." She adds with a sigh, though, "Like most social movements, this one could take a while to make an impact.

"It will be a long haul."

The Parents' Bill of Rights contains nine "acts" intended to help parents limit the ways marketers can advertise to children. Congress is currently considering the first two items.

• Children's Food Labeling Act: Would require fast-food restaurant chains to label contents of food and provide basic nutritional information about it.

• Child Privacy Act: Would give parents the right to control any commercial use of personal information concerning their children, and the right to know precisely how such information is used.

• Leave Children Alone Act: Would ban television advertising aimed at children under 12 years of age.

• Children's Advertising Subsidy Revocation Act: Would eliminate tax deductibility as a business expense for advertising aimed at children under 12 years of age.

• Advertising to Children Accountability Act: Would require corporations to disclose who created all of their advertisements and who did the market research for each ad directed at children under 12 years of age.

• Commercial-Free Schools Act: Would prohibit companies from pitching products to children while the youngsters are in school and away from parental influence.

• Product Placement Disclosure Act: Would require corporations to disclose, on packaging and at the outset, any and all product placements on television and videos, and in movies, video games, and books. This would let parents know there are ads in media typically assumed to be ad-free.

• Child Harm Disclosure Act: Would create a legal duty for corporations to publicly disclose all information suggesting that their product(s) could substantially harm the health of children.

• Fairness Doctrine for Parents: Would make the broadcasting Fairness Doctrine apply to all advertising to children under 12 years of age, providing parents and community with response time on broad- cast TV and radio for advertising to children.

- Adapted from Commercial Alert, www.commercialalert.org/pbor.pdf

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