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'Photoshop Law' needed to stop altered images, say UK MPs
CGTN
05:04

Digitally altered images that promote harmful body expectations mean ads should carry warnings, UK MPs say.  

The UK Parliament's Health and Social Care Committee is urging advertisers to feature a variety of body types and for influencers to stop posting filtered or unrealistic images.

The report reads: "We believe the government should introduce legislation that ensures commercial images are labelled with a logo where any part of the body, including its proportions and skin tone, are digitally altered."

The proposal has been dubbed the 'Photoshop Law.'

In 2017 France introduced a photoshop law, requiring any commercial image that has been digitally altered to make a model look thinner to include a warning, reading: "edited photograph."

Breaking the rule could see the creators fined $38,000 or 30 percent of the cost of creating the ad.

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Caroline Mountford, a mental health speaker and writer, told CGTN Europe, "I would love to see every digitally enhanced image carry some sort of warning or alert that the image has been altered or filtered or changed in some way. So that the person who's viewing it is under no illusion."

Mountford says that due to the fast-paced visual culture, people don't have the time to reflect on how images have been altered. 

"What young people are left with invariably are feelings of, I don't look like this. I want to look like this. What do I need to do to look at this? Because when I look like this, then I will be loved, accepted, valued, successful."

The committee heard from a variety of people, from the health sector but also reality TV stars who relayed their experiences of cosmetic surgery and body dysmorphia. 

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