Outrage Over App That Slims Down Children’s Faces To Make Them ‘Prettier’

A Children's charity in the UK has criticised an app called 'SlimBooth' which offers tools to manipulate your face to look more like a 'celebrity'. SlimBooth lets kids change the shape of their eyes, ears and chin to make them look more like celebrities for selfies. The app is free on iTunes and uses the image of a young blonde girl in their promotional material online. The makers, Dim Dim Sum, from HongKong, have marketed the app to children as young as four and say (jokingly) that it is a fun alternative to costly plastic surgery. Now, a leading UK charity has warned that this type of targeting can lead to children developing eating disorders. Many parents have hit out at the smartphone app saying that encouraging children to strive for the unobtainable or thinking that they need to change their appearance is very disturbing. According to the Daily Mail, the app asks;

'Are you curious as to why some celebrities have slimmer V-shaped faces, chins and bigger eyes than before? Do you wonder if you'd also look prettier or more handsome with a slimmer face and bigger eyes? What about your school mates?' No need to go for any plastic surgery and it saves money and time!

Claude Knights, chief executive for children's charity, Kidscape, tells the news service,

 "Using a child in before and after pictures and implying that a slimmed down version of their face would make them look more attractive sends out very worrying messages. We know that children as young as seven worry about their body image and physical appearance, and that in this very visual age they are bombarded with so called 'ideal' and unrealistic images."

Do you think it is just a bit of fun or would you have concerns over the messages app's like this are sending to our children?