When it comes to food marketing, children are one of the major targets. Regulatory actions can play a strategic role in health protection. The objective of this research was to characterize the ethical perspective in the discourse against state regulatory actions on food marketing directed at children, aiming to understand the context of the discourse's production and how it creates meaning. The methodology adopted was qualitative, with documentary analysis and use of concepts and procedures from Discourse Analysis. The work of Hans Jonas, specifically his Responsibility Principle, and Garrafa and Port's Intervention Bioethics oriented the analysis. The self-regulation discourse analysis showed an ethical perspective in which relations of consumption predominate over the children´s vulnerability. The rhetorical excess is constant, as well as the use of resources like naturalization, untruthfulness, ideological dissimulation and euphemism. An erasure of social conflicts takes place, and an ahistorical perspective is present. The discourse does not align with Jonas´ Responsibility Principle, nor those of Intervention Bioethics. Lastly, the ethical perspective of the discourse represents a double paradox, because it is a business discourse that hides its competitive roots and metamorphoses into an ethical one.

Esse estudo mapeou estratégias de regulação da publicidade e comercialização de alimentos para lactentes e crianças de primeira infância, discutindo seu papel sob a ótica da bioética de intervenção. Adotou-se metodologia qualitativa, com levantamento e análise documental da legislação sobre o tema. O marco legal é recente e abrangente; considerando os baixos índices de aleitamento materno e os indicadores relativos à introdução precoce e inadequada da alimentação complementar no Brasil, impõem-se medidas educativas e regulatórias atuantes sobre produção, publicidade e comercialização de alimentos, lógica corroborada pelo marco da bioética de intervenção, visando redução das vulnerabilidades e proteção à infância. This study mapped regulatory strategies aimed at the advertising and marketing of foods for breastfeeding babies and infants in early childhood. The discussion was conducted under an intervention bioethics lens, adopting a qualitative methodology, as well as gaining an overview and analysing Brazilian legislative documents on the matter. The legal framework is recent and broad; considering the low rates of breastfeeding, and indicators related to the early and inadequate introduction of complementary food, it is clear that there is the need for educative and regulatory measures over food production, marketing and advertising in Brazil. This logic is corroborated by the intervention bioethics framework, aimed at reducing the vulnerabilities and improving childhood protection.