Instagram has announced a ban on selfie filters that show users what they would look like with plastic surgery over growing concerns about its effect on mental health.
According to Fox Business, the Facebook-owned social media app will soon ban photo filters that show users what they would look like with enhanced “beauty” features such as fuller lips, higher cheekbones, and sleeker facial features.
Instagram has removed filters like “Fix Me,” which simulates pen marks all over users’ faces to point out the areas a cosmetic surgeon could do plastic work on, like lifts and tucks. Users will also no longer be able to access its “Plastica” filter, which gives someone a brow lift or bigger, fuller lips.
Spark AR, the company that creates Instagram’s face filters, announced in a Facebook post last week, that they will be removing “all effects associated with plastic surgery” from the Instagram Effect Gallery.
Studies have suggested a correlation between Instagram use among young women and negative self and body image and low self-esteem. A study from psychologists at the University College London published in April found evidence that women and young girls are more likely to want to get plastic surgery if they spend extensive time on social media, according to Yahoo Finance.
Last month, the social media app said it would start restricting minors from viewing posts that promote buying detox teas, diet pills, appetite suppressants, and other health supplements with unhealthy weight-loss claims.
Instagram content reviewers will now be able to report a post if they think it violates policy, and influencers will no longer be able to hawk weight-loss products that make wondrous claims, nor will they be able to link to a discount code to get followers to buy them.
