Beautifying photo and video filters may seem idealistic, but they have unrealistic ideals that can cause mental health problems among social media users. Some governments are starting to get involved.
© ingimage / IMAGO Constant self-presentation has been shown to affect the mental health of social media usersEveryone has: acne, pores, skin blemishes. This so-called bug is the most natural thing in the world. But not on social media, where almost every influencer smiles at users with flawless hair, smooth skin and bright white teeth.
The market for face filter software is growing and what they can do has become increasingly complex in recent years. Everything from minor corrections like smoother skin and thicker eyebrows to completely changing a person's facial structure is possible.
Artificial intelligence for artificial beauty
FaceTune from Israeli company Lightricks has over 100 million downloads.
A few years ago, pictures were just getting better. But now people can change their appearance on video in such complex and complete ways that image manipulation is almost invisible.
Two new TikTok filters created quite a stir in early March. With the help of artificial intelligence, the Teenage Look filter makes people look younger, while the Bold Glamor filter transforms the face into ideal beauty standards by giving you beautiful lips, bright eyes, a thin nose and flawless skin.
With previous versions of these filters, changes were detected by mistakes people made when they quickly moved their head or waved their hand in front of their face. But the latest new filter seems to be fail-safe.
These filters also satisfy a uniform beauty ideal where dark skin is usually whitened, white skin appears pink, and prominent noses are narrowed. "This aesthetic is definitely a problem to be aware of because many stereotypes are condensed into filters," says Katja Zünkel, a professor of cultural studies at Goethe University Frankfurt who specializes in digital culture and consumer aesthetics.
The technology is fairly new, he added, but the various roles it plays are old. "There's a lot of problematic filters to get around and certainly a lot of pressure to fit in," he said.
Depression and dysphoria
This application can have serious psychological consequences for users. According to a survey by British YMCAs, two-thirds of young people feel pressured by beauty standards on social media. Another study by British youth organization Girlguiding reported that a third of girls aged 11-21 no longer post raw photos of themselves.
"It's a game with the devil," said German YouTuber Sylvie Karlsson, who speaks out against beauty filters in her videos. "When we make the filters public, we get positive feedback in the form of hearts and likes. We feel accepted and the dopamine flows."
But what happens when people go out with their friends without filters, revealing under-eye acne, pigment spots or dark circles, she asked. "Social media has trained us to project our ideals to the outside world," Carlson said. "It broke us."
The resulting health condition now has its own name: the Snapchat selfie or audio problem. As selfie leaks become more common, more people's self-esteem is damaged. Feeling unable to embody the demands of this beauty ideal can also lead to depression , according to the scientific journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery .
Legal intervention
In response, many countries have taken legal steps to regulate the use of filters. In Norway and Israel, images manipulated with filters must now be tagged after being used for advertising on social media. A draft law in France seeks to impose similar rules on photo and video recording, with operators facing fines of up to 300,000 euros ($325,000) or six months in prison for violations. Such rules are also being discussed in the UK.
In Germany, there is currently no legal requirement. Last year, YouTuber Karlsson launched a petition to change this, and the Conference of Ministers for Gender and Women, led by Green Senator Katharina Vejbank, also called for mandatory labeling of enhanced images in advertising and social media. But no legislation has yet been proposed at the federal level.
Goethe University professor Katja Gunkel said she would support such a regulation, but made a clear distinction between public and private use. "Here we are only talking about the commercial sector. It cannot be used to take selfies in the private sector. How does it work, who should control it? So I would call it censorship," he said.
Instead, he added, children and youth should be taught early on to strengthen their media skills. “We live in capitalism and it does a good job of giving people the feeling that they need to continue to thrive and tie it to the consumption of certain goods or services, such as medical interventions.
"At the end of the day, all these machines thrive on a sense of scarcity that was never satisfied, and so the use continues," Junkel said. "So the task can simply be: How do users gain some tolerance and confidence to deal with these images?"
This article has been translated from German.
Author: Thomas Lachan