The new study comes from a U.K. based organization called the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. The body is made up largely of research academics and it concerns the images shared on social media and the effect these have on young people, many of whom feel pressurized to look like celebrities or attractive others. Such images are commonly shared within peer groups on popular social media platforms or the images appear in forums or chatrooms. Central to the report is a tracking of anxieties amog young people around body image.
Social media concerns highlighted include the fact that photos can receive positive or negative ratings on many platforms. To add to this is the rise of celebrity culture (‘fetishizing’, to use the sociological term, celebrities even those of little achievement); and the common appearance of photographs of bodies that have been airbrushed. There is also a tendency to accentuate apparently perfect lifestyles.
Fact check – what is body dimorphims?
Body dysmorphic disorder is a type of mental disorder characterized by an obsessive preoccupation that some aspect of one’s own appearance is severely flawed. This leads to excessive and often obsessive behaviors that seek to either hide or fix the body part deemed to be inadequate. The condition is common with teens and young adults; generally more so with women (but not exclusively so).
As well as the sharing of images the report highlights another area of the digital world that causes the authors concern. Here the study draws attention to makeover apps, many available via app stores, as well as online plastic surgery games. Many of these are marketed at children. According to The Guardian, some apps actively encourage girls to play at plastic surgery. This includes some that users to alter the image of their own face and body; as well as those which, startlingly, feature an “ugly” princess or “fat” woman who can be made beautiful if she goes under the knife.
Part of the report’s concern is with the cosmetic industry itself. The report warns governments that much of the industry is unregulated and many procedures, as well as certain institutions are unsafe, sometimes undertaking questionable and risk-laden medical procedures. The researchers call on a band for under 18 year olds being allowed cosmetic surgery, with the exception of serious medical conditions.
One of the researchers, Professor Jeanette Edwards, from the University of Manchester, told the BBC: “We’ve been shocked by some of the evidence we’ve seen, including make-over apps and cosmetic surgery ‘games’ that target girls as young as nine.”
She adds: “There is a daily bombardment from advertising and through social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat that relentlessly promote unrealistic and often discriminatory messages on how people, especially girls and women, ‘should’ look.”
The report is titled “Cosmetic procedures: ethical issues,” and it can be accessed from the Nuffield Foundation website.
