Legislators in Norway, have passed new laws that make it illegal for influencers and advertisers not to label retouched photos in a bid to fight unrealistic beauty standards.
The regulations were passed as an amendment to the nations marketing act via a landslide 72 votes against 15 on June 2.
Under these new regulations, standardized labels designed by the Norwegian Ministry of Children and family affairs must be obtained for advertisements where a body shape, size or skin has been retouched – even through a filter before the photo is taken.
Some of the manipulations requiring labels include enlarged body parts, narrowed waists and the likes including exaggerated muscles but it is unclear if the same would be required for light adjustments and saturation.
The law also covers influencers or celebrities, “if they receive any payments or other benefits” in relation to the post on any social media platform. Violations of any kind are punishable by escalating fines and in extreme cases, imprisonments.
The move comes after multiple debates on the issue of “body pressure” or beauty standards. the Norwegian ministry of children and family in its proposal to the parliament,cites studies that found beauty standards and boy pressure to be pervasive and a contributing factor to low self-esteem amongst young people.
The kind of Norway is to decide when exactly this law will come into effect.
The ministry is however conceding that the requirement would be difficult to enforce as it isn’t always easy to determine when a photo has been retouched adding that the unintended consequence of the law was that more influencers might feel pressured to undergo cosmetic surgeries.
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