Generation Botox: Teens risk all for ‘perfect’ selfie
SELFIE culture is fuelling a dangerous obsession with cosmetic surgery among young people desperate to copy ‘perfect’ social media images, a Scots psychiatrist has warned.
Dr Jane Morris said the popularity of photo filters on such platforms as Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook means youngsters are chasing unattainable beauty standards.
The NHS Grampian consultant, who specialises in eating disorders, says selfie culture is driving a boom in cosmetic treatments such as Botox and lip fillers.
She also said images manipulated using ‘filters’ to erase imperfections are causing psychological disorders and impacting young people’s mental health.
Dr Morris, a specialist at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, said: ‘I get the feeling Instagram has now taken the place of weighing scales and mirrors and all the other things that people used to use to police their own body image.’
Dr Morris said the problem has become more pronounced due to the number of selfies people post online, with young people spending hours crafting how their image will be portrayed in profiles,
She said: ‘People spend ages trying to curate their selfies. They can start to lose perspective.
‘If you constantly look at artificial images and constantly obsess about particular features then you actually paradoxically damage your sense of judgment.’
Instagram has been criticised for prompting a surge in demand in cosmetic treatments such as Botox, cheek or lip fillers prompted by seemingly ‘perfect’ pictures.
Carried out by private clinics, the treatments include dermal fillers, semi-permanent make-up and Botox wrinkle reduction, account for nine out of ten UK procedures. They can be completed in as little as ten minutes by beauty therapists with no medical training.
It has resulted in young people getting work done to look like celebrities such as Kylie Jenner, who is said to have had her lips injected when she was 15.
Dr Kieran Bong, medical director of Essence Medical Cosmetic Clinic in Glasgow, reckons there has been a huge increase in the popularity of treatments.
The rise, he believes, has been caused by a combination of social media, affordability and lack of regulation in the market.
He said: ‘Twenty or 30 years ago people wouldn’t admit if they had cosmetic treatments done.
‘Now, it has become far more acceptable and we are seeing a trend for young people perceiving non-surgical facial aesthetics treatments as part of self-grooming – not too dissimilar to getting a haircut, a spray tan or a massage.
‘I’m definitely seeing a wider proportion of people trivialising what is a medical procedure.’ Dr
Bong also claims that young people arrive with pictures of celebrities on their phone which they want replicated.
Save Face, a national register of accredited practitioners, has received more than 200 complaints from patients in Scotland.
Director Ashton Collins said: ‘The treatments are so trivialised to the point that, especially amongst young women, they are not perceived as medical treatments that could go wrong.’
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: ‘We know from research published over the last year that body image is an issue that matters to young people.
‘That’s why we established an Advisory Group on Healthy Body Image for Children and Young People, which will publish its recommendations soon.’
‘People trivialising medical procedure’