In Norway, a new law comes into force that will oblige influencers on social media to not post modified photos without saying what they have done. The rules will affect any paid post on all social media platforms, this as part of an effort to โreduce pressure on young people about how their bodies lookโ.
โWe need this lawโ
Madeleine Pedersen, 26, is a Norwegian Instagram influencer. Pedersen tells that it is โtimeโ for the rules to change and that she hopes the law will prevent young people from being compared to unrealistic images. โThere are many people who feel insecure about their body or their faceโ, she says.
โI have struggled with body issues due to Instagram in the pastโ, she admits. โThe worst part is, I do not even know if the other girls she looked up to edited her photos or not. So we all need answers, we need a law like thisโ.
Madeleine does not โfeel the needโ to edit her appearance in her posts, which reach an audience of more than 90,000 people. She changes the โlight, colors and sharpness to get a better atmosphereโ, but she says that she would never use an app to alter the appearance of her face or her body.
The objectives
The Norwegian governmentโs website says the aim of the law is to help reduce pressure on society due to โidealized people in advertising. Among other things, the duty to mark advertising retouched or otherwise manipulated is introduced when this means that the body of the person in the advertisements deviates from reality in terms of body shape, size or skinโ, she adds.
It will also cover the use of filters, such as those that can be used on Snapchat, as well as digital alterations to body shape and size. It affects anyone who posts a paid promotion on social media, including many influencers, actors, and singers.
Madeleine Pedersen believes that the new requirements will make Norwegian influencers less likely to edit their images. โThey will be too embarrassed to admit it, so they will edit less, as it shouldโ, she says. โYou are beautiful; do not throw that away for a few likes. That is not real lifeโ, she advises.
Other causes
Eirin Kristiansen, a 26-year-old influencer from Bergen, Norway, agrees that the new law is a โstep in the right directionโ, but she believes it is โnot very well thought out. To me, it seems more like a shortcut to fixing a problem that is not going to get betterโ, Eirin tells Newsbeat. โMental health problems are caused by much more than an edited photo, and another tag on advertisersโ photos will not change how girls and boys really feel, in my opinionโ.
A study by UK MPs last year found that the majority of those under the age of 18 said that social media images โextremelyโ influenced their body image. Only 5% of those under the age of 18 in the survey said they would not consider changing their appearance by doing it through diet or surgery.
Eirin says that she does not edit her photos, but that she plays with โlights and colorsโ to capture a โmoodโ. โI think we should focus more on how we can learn to be selective in what we see and learn how social media really worksโ, she says.
โSocial media are here to stayโ
Em Clarkson, an influencer from London, agrees that it is important to be selective about what we see. The 26-year-old posts raw images and often talks about the damage of filters and editing apps.
But she was not always like this. โWhen I was 16 I downloaded Photoshop and learned how to use it so I could upload a bikini photo to Facebookโ, she admits. โI know that if these [editing] apps had existed then, when I was not happy with my body, I would have used them for sureโ.
Em Clarkson wants other countries to have a similar laws
When she was younger, Em she says she found it difficult to compare herself to the women she saw on magazine covers, which happened about 2 times a week. But she worries that younger people on Instagram now see edited images โ50, 100 times a day, and every day.โ
Em says that other governments should take the issue โmore seriouslyโ and introduce a law like Norwayโs.
โShe was pretty, nice and we talked every day โฆ but in the end it was a scamโ โAll indicators show mental health problems, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, everything is on the rise,โ she says. โI was lucky to fall into an extraordinarily positive community on Instagram, but the vast majority of the Internet is not like that,โ adds Em.
โThere has to be some basis on which we agree to act responsibly, and I think [Norwegian law] is a good start.โ โWe cannot tell people to stop editing their images, that is not feasible. But we can tell them, โIf you are going to do it, you have to be honest.โ That is greatโ.