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Sending an ominous note to parents, a new study has warned that Facebook is pushing kids towards unhealthy eating.

IBN Live reported findings from a University of Sydney study which showed that brands making junk foods were aggressively marketing their products on social networks, prominently on Facebook. The target was adolescents who were found engaging with these brands, which in turn contributed to greater consumption of unhealthy substances.

"Our findings show that unhealthy food and beverage marketing is prolific and seamlessly integrated within online social networks," lead author Dr Becky Freeman at the university's School of Public Health said, according to IBN Live.

"Adolescents and young adults are engaging with brands like Dominos, Slurpee and Skittles on Facebook on a near-daily basis. Given the exponential growth in use of social media websites such as Facebook among young people, there is a need to understand the techniques and reach of this kind of marketing on these sites," researchers said.

According to The Times of India, the researchers analysed digital content from 27 brands which attracted teenagers and got them to share their content widely on Facebook.

The study found that brands used marketing techniques unique to social media and aimed at increasing consumer interaction. Some techniques included churning user-generated content to develop interactive games and apps besides allowing users to directly order.

"The Facebook pages in our study were not simply low-budget fan pages, all were professionally moderated and appeared to be administered by either the company brand owner or an advertising agency," Freeman reportedly said.

"By using the interactive and social aspects of Facebook to market products,energy-dense, nutrient-poor food brands capitalize on users' social networks and magnify the reach and personal relevance of their marketing messages," the researchers said.

The findings of the study have been published in the American Journal of Public Health.