The issue of how far airbrushing in women’s magazines can go, before having dramatic consequences on impressionable teens reading them, has been up for debate for many months now, as we also reported. Until now, though, the issue was only discussed on a “what if” level, but that is bound to change, as academics from the UK, US, and Australia are urging the Advertising Standards Authority to take concrete action, the Daily Mail informs.

That airbrushed images of women who come very close to perfection have a negative impact on a regular woman’s self-esteem is no longer a matter of pure speculation. However, academics are now saying that these digitally altered images are responsible for more than just a decrease in one’s self-confidence, as they can also be tracked back to eating disorders in girls as young as 10, depression, and feelings of incredibly low self-esteem.

“More than 40 of the world’s leading experts on body image issues today call for a ban on touching up photos in advertising for the under 16s. […] In a letter to the Advertising Standards Authority, the academics from Britain, America and Australia say that the ‘clear majority of adolescent girls’ have problems with ‘depression, stress, guilt, shame, insecurity and body dissatisfaction.’ The ASA has received more than 1,000 complaints about airbrushed adverts in the past three months following a campaign by the Liberal Democrats,” the Daily Mail writes.

Because of the impact such a practice has, even at those times when one might not be aware of it, the need for a strict set of rules to regulate it is bigger now more than ever. The experts are not calling for a complete ban on airbrushing in magazines: just like the previous initiative, they are trying to make the ASA see that photo thus altered have to come accompanied by a “legend” stating exactly the type of modification that has been operated on the original. This way, teenage girls and women in general will no longer be misled to believe that what they’re seeing mirrors reality.

“Exposure to the media ideal is linked with greater body dissatisfaction and more unhealthy eating beliefs and behaviors in women. It is very significant in women who already have some body image issues, and among adolescents. We hope that the advertising authorities in the UK and other countries will give this evidence serious consideration and see the urgent need for policy change,” the experts write in the letter to the ASA.