Nafisa Mughal gives her thoughts on the ‘Botulinum Toxin and Cosmetic Fillers (Children) Act’ coming into force this autumn.
The ‘Botulinum Toxin and Cosmetic Fillers (Children) Act’ will make it illegal to provide either procedure to under-18s for cosmetic reasons.
I for one am so glad that this new law is coming into action this autumn.
The act will still allow for treatments in medical circumstances, administered by a trained medical/health professional.
According to the Department of Health, some 41,000 injections are given to minors per year. This act is therefore in place to stop inappropriate treatment for children.
Social media
This comes at the perfect time as we are in the midst of Mental Health Awareness week. More and more studies show children suffering with anxiety and depression based on their looks. Social media then gets the blame for this huge increase in injectables in children.
Cosmetic surgeons have recently come under fire for targeting young teens using platforms like Tiktok. Videos showing plastic surgery are also appearing on the ‘for you’ page of children as young as 14.
The hashtag #nosejob has over 1.9 billion views. And #plasticsurgery has accumulated more than 4.5 billion views, which is deeply disturbing.
Although I am an advocate for using cosmetic treatments to boost confidence, I am disappointed that children are being manipulated into thinking they need to be ‘perfect’. We must remind young people that perfection is subjective. No amount of cosmetic injections will lead to the perfection they seek.
MP Laura Trott, who introduced the Bill, said: ‘No child needs cosmetic botox or fillers’.
And I also wholeheartedly agree.
