War on ads that push youngsters to look good
PRESSURE to achieve impossibly perfect physiques is putting young people’s mental health at risk, an MP has warned.
Luke Evans, who is also a family doctor, will this week present a Bill to force advertisements to come with a label if the models’ bodies have been digitally altered.
He said: “As a GP you get used to seeing young people with low selfesteem because they can’t make their bodies look like their role models on social media. The truth is no matter how much training they do they can’t look like them because their role models all too often have made their legs longer, their waists smaller and biceps bigger with digital image manipulation.”
The Bosworth Conservative MP said: “Growing up, I had role models whose images I saw in magazines and on TV. With dedication and training it was theoretically possible to be like them. It isn’t like that any more, we’re creating a warped sense of reality.
“We need advisory labels to let us know when an image has been altered because false images are having a real effect on the mental health of generations of young people.”
A spokesman for the NSPCC said: “At Childline we hear from young people across the country who are struggling with negative body image which can be inflamed by them seeing highly edited photos online and in magazines. It’s important children do not compare themselves to these images and instead understand we are all different and special in our own way.”
Girlguiding last month reported that more than half (54 per cent) of girls said they had seen online adverts that have made them feel “pressured to look different”.
Stephen Woodford, chief executive of the Advertising Association, said: “Our industry is conscious of all its responsibilities to the public, including the sensitive issues of body image and self-esteem, and it is an area where action has already been taken.
“According to the advertising codes, enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority, marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
“If any adverts have been found to have broken any rules, they must be taken down.”
‘They create a warped reality’