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The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is being urged to clamp down on advertisements which fuel body insecurity among teenagers.
Senior health officials are demanding a meeting with the organisation’s chief executive to discuss concerns that too many advertisements - such as those for cosmetic surgery shown during Love Island - are heaping pressures on the young.
The national mental health director for NHS England, Claire Murdoch, has written to Guy Parker, chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), questioning whether the regulator is doing enough to protect children.
The letter asks whether existing guidelines to protect children from harm are sufficiently robust.
It also urges the ASA to consider if the introduction of a broader Duty of Care for mental health should be imposed on all broadcast advertisers.
Co-signed Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner, and Professor Wendy Burn, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the letter raises the advertisement of cosmetic surgery during ITV’s Love Island.
“Not only are there clear risks associated with cosmetic surgery, but placed alongside the body image pressures that can be inherent in many online and social media interactions, adverts such as these could pose a risk to mental health,” writes Ms Murdoch, a registered mental health nurse.
She added: “The challenge is particularly acute among children and teenagers.”
The UK Code of Broadcast Advertising already contains a rule stating that children must be protected from advertisements that could cause physical, mental or moral harm”.
However, the letter questions whether these are “sufficiently robust”.
“The introduction of a broader duty of care for mental health should be considered for all broadcast advertisers,” it says.
It follows warnings Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, raised concerns earlier this month that cosmetic surgery adverts are being broadcast during breaks on the popular ITV2 show, in which attractive young contestants compete to win one another’s affections
He also said Facebook and other social media websites are “in danger of ending up on the wrong side of history” by failing to protect young people.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on July 1st , Mr Stevens said it is not just the NHS’ job to tackle eating disorders and mental illness in young people, and that social media sites and television shows should take more responsibility.
“Take a show like Love Island,” Mr Stevens said.
“Look at the adverts being shown alongside Love Island. You've got explicit ads being aimed at young women around breast cosmetic surgery. That is all playing into a set of pressures around body image that are showing up.
"A number of Love Island’s contestants have had extensive plastic surgery, and critics have said it is creating “unrealistic” standards for young people.
“We have to change that whole environment which children are being exposed to,” Mr Stevens said.
“The time has come to think long and hard as to whether we should be exposing young people to those kind of pressures, and social media and advertising have got to look very carefully at the kind of impact they are having.”
An ASA spokesman said: “The protection of children sits at the heart of the advertising rules and the work of the ASA.
“We welcome the thoughts and input from NHS England on this important issue and look forward to meeting with them to discuss this further.”
Meanwhile the, Mental Health Network, which represents NHS mental health services, said: “TV advertising has long been scrutinised for potential impact on physical health and it is right that we look harder at the effect it can have on our mental health, particularly of our vulnerable children and young people.”
The intervention came as a survey by Youth charity YMCA found that 62 per cent of 15 to 16-year-olds felt expectations over their personal appearance had been ramped up by social media.
Photoshopped images and the sharing of only flattering shots have shifted young people's understanding of what a normal body looks like, the charity said.
Source: Telegraph