New regulations in Norway have been established to push back against the rising tide of unrealistic beauty standards across the various social media platforms in an attempt to curb body dysmorphia in the country.
Amendments to the 2009 Marketing Act make it illegal for influencers to share retouched images of their bodies in advertisement. They are now required to acknowledge that the image has been edited. There has been widespread acceptance with regards to the law, but as Instagram and TikTok continue to grow in followers, and become increasingly commercialized, would this regulation be enough?
According to the amendments made by the Norwegian Ministry of Children and Family Affairs, and the passing with a 72 to 15 votes in government, promotional posts with alterations to a body’s size, shape or skin will need to be designated with a standardized label issued by the Ministry.
This also directly implicated celebrities and media influencers who “receive any payment or other benefit” from a post from social media. These alterations will not only cover images where lips, waistlines and muscles are exaggerated after the photo is taken, but those created with a filter.
Violation will be visited with escalating fines and potential imprisonment in extreme cases.
The enforcement of a label will create more clarity about where a body image being presented is fake or even putting advertisers off from retouching photos in the first place. The Ministry, however, recognize that the law may be difficult to enforce since it is difficult to ascertain when an image has been edited.
Another issue that arises is that it is also unclear whether adjustments to lighting or saturation in photos will be considered a violation. Nevertheless, the bill received widespread support from Norway’s influencer community according to local newspaper Verdens Gang.
“Filters [are] something that should be fun, something you can laugh at, or be allowed to have a realistic butterfly on your face. Not to create a false beauty ideal,” said influencer Annijor Jorgensen.
Some other influencers have called the law to go further by extending the regulations to all content. It is still unclear how this will be implemented. And because these rules only apply in Norway, Norwegian users will still come across edited posts of users abroad.
The law comes amid the cultural conversation in Norway surrounding the concept of ‘Kroppspress’ which means ‘body pressure’ and its effect on the mental health of young people.
“Body pressure is always there, often imperceptibly, and is difficult to combat,” the Ministry said in a statement.
