This scandal has forgotten victims

Selfies are making teenagers’ lives more miserable than bullies. If that claim hadn’t come from research at the University of Birmingham and been published in the journal Sport, Education and Society, I probably wouldn’t have believed it.

Social media, that deafening echo chamber of airbrushed perfection and idealised body types, is apparently driving 13- to 18-year-olds to despair. For a change, it’s not celebrities who are directly to blame, it’s seeing pictures of their peers with tiny waists and large bottoms that is having a corrosive effect on their self-esteem.

Yes, that’s not a misprint. Big bottoms have been “in” for a while now. I know that because whenever I’m having a wobbly moment and ask my 15-year-old if my jeans make my derrière look big, she sighs, rolls her eyes and says: “No, sorry.”

It’s the body fashion epitomised by the likes of Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj. Kim, who tried to “break the internet” with pictures of her enormous, oiled rear, once had her bottom X-rayed on TV to prove she hadn’t had implants, which probably tells you all you need to know.

There are a great many web pages called things like “How to take a butt selfie”, which is where teenage girls go to learn the tricks of the trade (stand at a 75-degree angle in front of the mirror and do a half tip-toe).

Even though the sites say things such as “Filters are encouraged. No one is perfect! This is all about aesthetics and aesthetics are deception”, it still makes young girls looking at Instagram feel inadequate.

Psychologists are recording increasing numbers of boys with image issues, too. Buff lads with six-packs and pecs are everywhere they look. So everyone can be paranoid and self-conscious together.

What to do? Not much, I fear, other than educate our children, instill them with resilience and, of course, confiscate their technology.

Call me a coward, but I’m sticking with the first two.