Former MAFS bride criticises push for transparency on social media

A call to force influencers to disclose when they digitally alter an image online has been slammed by at a MAFS alumni

Celebrities and psychologists have called for the government to discuss introducing laws which would force influencers to disclose whether they have digitally altered an image online.

This comes after Norway passed a similar legislation last month, where influencers must declare if a sponsored or paid image has been altered online, in a bid to tackle ­increasing unrealistic, and ­oppressive, body standards.

When approached, TV and radio presenter Erin Molan, who successfully campaigned for a change in legislation around online abuse, believes there should be full disclosure when online images are altered.

Radio and TV personality Erin Molan with three-year-old daughter Eliza. Picture: Toby Zerna

“What I scroll through on Instagram on a daily basis doesn’t reflect the way most women look in real life — even super-fit women,” said Molan, happy to declare that she, too, uses filters on her photos.

“There’s nothing wrong or necessarily deceptive with getting creative with your photos and playing with lighting and colours, but ensuring that comes with a disclaimer and a bit of transparency can only be a good thing.

“I have a three-year-old daughter, and, as someone who grew up looking at magazines and never feeling like I measured up to girls in the photos, and all the self-confidence issues that followed through to my teens and twenties, I want my daughter Eliza exposed to as much normality as possible.

MAFS star Jessika Power sees no benefit in putting disclaimer on touched-up social media pictures. Picture: Glenn Hampson

“Anything we can do to make sure young people realise that perfection doesn’t exist, and that lumps, bumps, scars and a million other things on our bodies are all supernormal and nothing to be ashamed of.”

But former reality TV star Jessika Power, who has 350,000 Instagram followers, said similar laws in Australia would not make a difference to what people put online.

“If people are worried about body image, then get off the internet,” she said.

“I’m fully transparent about what I’ve had done with my followers, but the internet isn’t real. But nor are pictures in magazines on television.

“No one likes to be told what to do, and writing that an image is altered won’t stop people doing it.

“And as long as your passport photo and your licence picture look like you, why does the government care what you look like online?”

Project manager of Butterfly Body Bright, Dr Stephanie Damiano, believes the Norwegian laws are a positive step, saying more needs to be done to battle body dissatisfaction, which is one of the greatest risk factors in developing an eating disorder.

Jessika Power on her Instagram page.

“Put emphasis on preventative measures such as increased social media literacy, so that young people can critically analyse the messages and imagery they are seeing on social media and understand how to develop healthy habits in using these platforms,” she said.

“Celebrating diversity of a range of body sizes and shapes, as well as developing healthy attitudes towards food, eating and exercise, is also important.”

In 2019 Butterfly’s Insights into Body Esteem Report indicated that 58 per cent of people between 19 and 30 compared themselves to people on social media, and 48 per cent were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their appearance.

“We want our young people to be in a place where they don’t feel the need to Photoshop their images in the first place, that they understand that all bodies are good bodies, and that you don’t need to conform to these unrealistic standards of beauty because you are worth more than your appearance,” Dr Damiano said.