On 02 August 2022, The Health and Social Care Select Committee’s (“HSCSC”) published its report on its investigation into the impact of body image on mental and physical health.

Given the colossal growth of technology in the last twenty years and the increasing way in which we live our lives online, the findings of the enquiry are unsurprising. The report raises particularly grave concerns for children and young people, who are now growing up with the ever presence of social media intertwined into the fabric of our daily lives. Amongst other recommendations, the report called for urgent government action to bring in labelling legislation that could require influencers and advertisers to identify digitally altered or photoshopped images.

The HSCSC enquiry heard extensive 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”.

The report acknowledges that the much talked about (and further delayed) Online Safety Bill will make some progress to safeguard online platforms and social media by placing a responsibility on tech companies to remove “harmful but legal content”, but the HSCSC suggested that we need to go further than this with labelling legislation that requires advertisers and influencers to identify digitally enhanced content.

It is too early to tell what this legislation will look like, or, if it will even proceed, since this is not the first time that there have been discussions over a “photoshop law”. If it does proceed though, it could be similar to the “photoshop law” that was introduced in France in 2017, which requires all altered commercial images to be labelled with a warning that the image is a retouched photograph. Commercial images that breach the rules risk a fine of 37,500 Euros or 30% of the ad spend.

We will report further on photoshop law when/if it evolves.