The city of Hamburg is pushing for social media posts that have been enhanced using beauty filters and photoshop to be labelled.
At the beginning of 2022, Hamburg took over the running of The Conference of Equal Opportunities and Women’s Ministers (GFMK). The proposals by the city have come amidst growing concern about the effects of social media on body image and young people’s mental health, especially among women.
Many women's rights advocates argue that the widespread use of filters and editing on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram creates unrealistic beauty standards for young women, with celebrities and influencers often using photo editing techniques to perfect their skin and change their body shape.
In an interview with DPA, Equal Opportunities Senator and acting chair of the GFMK Katharina Fegebank said, “As part of our chairmanship, we want to raise awareness of the problem areas of beauty ideals and beauty mania on social media platforms.”
"Young women in particular often give in to a false ideal of beauty through – subsequently edited – pictures on social media, Instagram or other platforms,” the senator added.
Fegebank also went on to note that since the pandemic, issues have worsened as people have become more reliant on social media for communication. The new plans would aim to combat the problem by forcing influencers and celebrities to label their images, so as to reveal when filters and other photo editing tools had been used to enhance their photos.