Don’t let plastic surgeons prey on vulnerable teens

Experts demand a ban on treatments after Daily Mail exposé

COSMETIC surgery should be banned for the under-18s, a report recommends today.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics says companies exploit teenagers as well as put them at risk with dangerous and untested procedures.

The think-tank believes children should be barred from receiving lip fillers, Botox and cheek implants, warning there is ‘cause for serious concern’ about the ethics of the growing cosmetic industry.

It says children as young as eight and nine are being encouraged to have plastic surgery thanks to online games which simulate the procedures – including mobile apps such as Plastic Surgery Princess.

The authors last night praised a Daily Mail investigation in March, which revealed amateur beauticians with no medical training were offering lip fillers to schoolgirls for as little as £59.

Hugh Whittall, who is the director of the Nuffield Council, said: ‘The Mail’s recent article in which they investigated unregulated filler treatments being offered to young women by unqualified practitioners is a good example of what we are concerned about.’

The investigation revealed that beauticians are widely advertising cosmetic procedures on social media and making few checks as to the age of their clients.

The 192-page Nuffield report calls for new age limits and a new licensing regime. Professor Jeanette Edwards, of the University of Manchester, who led the Nuffield inquiry, said: ‘We’ve got largely an unregulated industry that’s exploiting people including children by promoting often untested and unproven products and procedures.

‘We need better regulation of the quality and safety of these procedures, the people who carry them out, and where they are carried out. Under-18s should not be able to just walk in off the street, and have a cosmetic procedure. There are legal age limits for having tattoos or using sunbeds. Invasive cosmetic procedures should be regulated in a similar way.’

Mark Henley, a consultant plastic surgeon at Nottingham University Hospitals and co-author of the report, said: ‘We would like a ban on these apps, but what we want far more is for society to recognise just how revolting they are.’

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons last night called for more regulation.

Marc Pacifico, its spokesman and a consultant plastic surgeon in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, said the Government should either introduce legally enforced rules or medical guidelines with ‘punitive penalties’ for firms that did not comply with them.

‘It’s time for action that has teeth,’ he added.