Love Island adverts ‘fuelling body insecurity’
Advertisements for cosmetic surgery shown during ITV’S Love Island are fuelling body insecurity among teenagers, NHS leaders have said. The Advertising Standards Authority is being urged to introduce a new duty of care to protect young people’s mental health.
BROADCAST advertisers should be subject to a new duty of care to protect young people’s mental health, NHS leaders have said.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is being urged to clamp down on advertisements that fuel body insecurity among teenagers.
Senior health officials are demanding a meeting with the organisation’s chief executive to discuss concerns that too many advertisements – such as those for cosmetic surgery shown during ITV’S Love Island – are putting pressure on young people.
Claire Murdoch, the national mental health director for NHS England, has written to Guy Parker, the chief executive of the ASA, questioning whether the regulator is doing enough to protect children.
It also urges the ASA to consider whether the introduction of a broader duty of care for mental health should be imposed on all broadcast advertisers.
Co-signed by Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, and Professor Wendy Burn, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the letter raises the advertisement of cosmetic surgery during Love Island.
“Not only are there clear risks associated with cosmetic surgery, but placed alongside the body image pressures that can be inherent in many online and social media interactions, adverts such as these could pose a risk to mental health,” writes Ms Murdoch, a registered mental health nurse. She adds: “The challenge is particularly acute among children and teenagers.”
The UK Code of Broadcast Advertising already contains a rule stating that children must be protected from advertisements that could cause physical, mental or moral harm”. However, the letter questions whether this is “sufficiently robust”. “The introduction of a broader duty of care for mental health should be considered for all broadcast advertisers,” it says.
Speaking on the BBC’S Andrew Marr Show earlier this month, Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, raised concerns that cosmetic surgery adverts were being broadcast during breaks on the ITV2 show, in which attractive young contestants compete for one another’s affections. He also said Facebook and other social media websites were “in danger of ending up on the wrong side of history” by failing to protect young people.
An ASA spokesman said: “The protection of children sits at the heart of the advertising rules and the work of the ASA. We welcome the thoughts and input from NHS England on this important issue and look forward to meeting with them to discuss this further.” The intervention came as a survey by YMCA, the youth charity, found that 62 per cent of 15 to 16-year-olds felt expectations over their personal appearance had been ramped up by social media. The charity said that digitally enhanced images and the sharing of only flattering shots had shifted young people’s understanding of what a normal body looked like.