Every day, we are served retouched photos on social media, whether you are aware of it or not. Constantly new apps and filters make it easy to beautify your own and others' looks.

This autumn, a bill came in the UK that retouched photos on social media will now be marked.

Now influencers who advertise skin and beauty products in the UK must mark sponsored posts where they use face filters or retouching, writes Dazed.

This as a reaction to the campaign #filterdrop started by Sasha Pallari in the summer of 2020, with the goal of seeing "more real skin" on Instagram. Advertisements that violate the new rule will be removed and prevented from being posted again.

"I feel that the harmful effect this has on social media users is finally being taken seriously, and that this is a big step in the right direction for how filters are used and the way cosmetics are advertised online," Pallari told the BBC.

Here at home, there is currently no law that says that retouched images on social media must be marked or sponsored posts.

This is despite the fact that Oslo Municipality in 2018 banned retouched advertising in the urban space, and it soon after became nationwide.

Should retouching be tagged on social media?

Khloé Kardashian with Photoshop Blemish. Photo via Nz Herald

Minister for Children and Families: - In progress with a bill

Last year, VG's MinMote wrote about Minister for Children and Families Ida Lindtvedt Røse, who is now working for a change in the law in the advertising and influencer industry here at home. The bill includes an obligation for advertisers to mark advertisements where body shapes have been changed by retouching.

Where do you stand on the trail?

- “We have to work in a number of areas to counteract body pressure. One of the most important things we do is to strengthen children and young people's security and self-esteem, and to make it easier for them to master their own lives,” says Minister for Children and Families Kjell Ingolf Ropstad to Melk & Honning.

- The government is in the process of a bill to amend the Marketing Act to counteract body pressure. Among other things, we propose an obligation for advertisers to mark advertising where the body of the person in the advertisement has been changed by retouching.

Ropstad says that this duty will also apply to influencers, when retouched advertising is disseminated. He says that ethical guidelines for the influencer industry have also been introduced, which are enforced by the Professional Committee for Influencer Marketing.

Kjell Ingolf Ropstad

- The proposal has been subject to consultation, and we are now working to follow this up. We aim for a bill to be submitted to the Storting before the summer.

However, the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs is not aware that retouched advertising on social media must now be noticed in the UK.

Influencer: - Fantastic

Janka Polliani has over 160,000 followers on Instagram, and is considered one of the country's biggest influencers.

- “Fantastic! I hope that Norway will follow,” she says to Melk & Honning about the new rule in the UK.

- “I had hoped that Instagram would take it seriously when they said they would remove the filters. But that influencers now have to notice posts is a step in the right direction,” she continues.

- “Now that everyone can make their own filters, Instagram may have lost its edge and that this is then second best. But I'm excited about what kind of consequence it will have if someone chooses not to mark their records.”