Vogue – New UK law makes it illegal to publish retouched photos in advertisements

Last year, Norway passed a law that would not allow digital influencers to flag paid content posted on their social media profiles. It is now the UK method to follow this in trying to deal with physical dysmorphia online.

Call Digitally Modified Body Image Bill (“The Law of Digital Transformation”, in free translation), was tabled in the English Parliament on Wednesday (13.01) and called for greater transparency from brands and influencers on content retrieved through tools such as Photoshop and Festoon. , Among other image editors. The idea is that content makers should flag paid posts with redundancies in the same way they currently do for commercially created posts.

The initiative comes shortly after the NHS, the UK’s national health service, reported a 41% increase in hospital admissions for young people 17 and under for anemia, bulimia and eating disorders between April and October 2021. The growth in the number of cases is somewhat credited to the epidemic and the greater contacts we had on social media during this period.

“If someone got paid to post an edited photo on social media, or if the advertisers or the person who posted it, made money from the resized photo, they should be honest about it,” Dr. Luke Evans said. Proposes legislation. This is the second time that MPs have brought in legislation with this in mind. By 2020, he had already put forward a similar plan, but it was not approved.

“This law is not intended to prevent people from re-touching their wedding photos or removing the red eye from a publication, it is designed for those with significant influence and business intent,” he said in his speech. If passed, the law should be forwarded to the Advertising Standards Authority, which will define how information should be flagged in posts.