‘Photoshop law’ could see Instagram influencers heavily fined for secretly editing their pictures

Social media influencers could face heavy fines for posting digitally altered images without labelling them, amid calls from MPs for the UK to follow other countries in introducing a “photoshop law”.

MPs on the Health and Social Care Committee have called for the Government to 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.

They said in a new report that the impact of body image on mental and physical health is “wide-reaching” and that ministers are “not doing enough to understand the scale of the risks” linked to body image dissatisfaction.

The MPs said the issue of digitally altered images was complex and welcomed the progress that is being made with the Online Safety Bill, in particular with the proposed responsibility on tech companies to regulate “legal but harmful” content, such as content that promotes eating disorders.

“However, we believe that more needs to be done in regard to the regulation of digitally altered images for advertising and social media use,” they said. “We heard evidence about the potential harm from online content that promotes an idealised, often doctored and unrealistic, body image and the link to developing low self-esteem and related mental health conditions.”

During its inquiry into body image one young woman spoke of her own experience, agreeing that having to declare that an image had been doctored could have dissuaded her from altering it.

Kim Booker, who lives with body dysmorphic disorder, said: “I feel that it should be made very transparent that people are using filters, or that they have edited or photoshopped their images. That needs to be very clear.

“I did not want people to know that I was editing my image- oh my God, no. I wanted people to think that I looked like that. You would definitely be much more perturbed about doing that. Yes, the labels would help massively in that sense.”

France introduced a photoshop law in 2017 requiring any commercial image that has been digitally altered to make a model look thinner to have a cigarette-packet style warning on it. It must say “photographie retouchée“, which translates to “edited photograph”.

Anyone flouting the new rule could be fined €37,500 (£33,000) or 30 per cent of the cost of creating the ad.

Israel recently upgraded its own photoshop law to cover digitally-altered images and Norway’s photoshop law came into effect last month, which means social media influencers cannot post modified photos without declaring what they have done. The rules affect any paid posts across all social media platforms, as part of an effort to “reduce body pressure” among young people.

A spokeswoman for the Health Committee said it would be up to the Government to work with tech companies on how a photoshop law in the UK might work. The Committee did not take evidence from tech companies when compiling its report.

Dr Luke Evans, Tory MP for Hinckley & Bosworth who sits on the committee, told i he envisaged a Norway-style model being introduced in the UK.

He said: “The Advertising Standards Authority would cover images which are posted for commercial gain, similar to the Norwegian model. I have previously met with the Norwegian Ambassador to discuss how their model works. There is potential for ours to be similar.

“The likes on Instagram already use #Ad, and Snapchat and TikTok notify users when a person has applied a filter on their image/video. However, there is much deeper work going on by the likes of Adobe and the Content Authenticity Initiative, which aims to have transparency behind the creating and changing of images from when they’ve been taken to publication. The basis of this technology could easily allow labelling to be put in place.

“We’re edging closer to more sophisticated solutions, and I believe the tech companies have the tools in their arsenal to deal with this any many other similar issues.”

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said it has been working on several initiatives to help improve wellbeing and promote body positivity on its platforms, from the option to remove likes to help minimise comparison culture, through to the removal and restriction of certain diet products and cosmetic procedures. It is also working with partners including BEAT, the UK’s leading eating disorders charity, to support ongoing work in this area.

Meta has policies on products, cosmetic procedures and advertising, which include several measures specifically designed to address issues around negative body image in ads, including ads not being allowed to contain “before-and-after” images or images that contain unexpected or unlikely results. Ad content must also not imply or attempt to generate negative self-perception in order to promote diet, weight loss, or other health-related products.

The company said it removes any content that makes a miraculous claim about certain diet or weight loss products, and is linked to a commercial offer such as a discount code.

A Government spokesperson said it will consider further proposals to tackle body image issues related to digitally altered images, such as mandatory kite marks, as part of its Online Advertising Programme and future plans for mental health.