TikTok has announced that it is responding to new legislation in the UK and EU by introducing a ban on the use of beauty filters by those aged under 18. The ban will be implemented worldwide …
Unrealistic images are damaging to self-esteem
Studies have shown that social media users often don’t realize they are comparing their own real-life appearance with heavily-edited photos, and that using beauty filters themselves can leave them feeling that their true appearance is unattractive.
Dr Jasmine Fardouly, a body image expert from the University of New South Wales, says a study she conducted last year suggests the more unattainable the beauty standard that young people are exposed to online, the more harmful it can be.
“It’s promoting a beauty ideal that’s not attainable for you,” she says. “It’s not attainable for anyone, really, because nobody looks like that. Everybody’s faces are being made to look the exact same way.
“The fact that it’s harder to know that it’s a filter may potentially be worse for the promoting of those ideals.”
TikTok will ban beauty filters
The Guardian reports that TikTok will be banning the use of beauty filters by users aged 13 to 17.
Under-18s will, in the coming weeks, be blocked from artificially making their eyes bigger, plumping their lips and smoothing or changing their skin tone.
The restrictions will apply to filters – such as “Bold Glamour” – that change children’s features in a way that makeup cannot […] The billion-user social media company announced the changes during a safety forum at its European headquarters in Dublin.
TikTok also claims it is getting more serious about banning pre-teens from using the app.
Before the end of the year, it will launch a trial of new automated systems that use machine learning to detect people cheating its age restrictions […]
Chloe Setter, TikTok’s lead on child safety public policy, said: “We’re hoping that this will give us the ability to detect and remove more and more quickly.”
In theory, under-13s have never been allowed to use it, but the company has been accused of failing to make any serious attempt to detect those who lie about their age.
One child protection group says that legislation is driving these kinds of changes.
Andy Burrows, the chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, which was set up to focus on suicide prevention, said: “It will not escape anyone’s attention that these shifts are being announced largely to comply with EU and UK regulation. This makes the case for more ambitious regulation, not less.”
Photo by Atikh Bana on Unsplash
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