A Manchester University professor has criticised online plastic surgery games aimed at children as young as nine.

The apps, with names like Plastic Surgery Princess, Little Skin Doctor and Pimp My Face, are intended to amuse and entertain but there are fears they could be contributing to an epidemic of mental health problems in young people.

While stopping short of calling for a legal ban, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics is urging app stores to wake up to their responsibilities and clamp down on children’s cosmetic surgery games.

And Jeanette Edwards, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester, who chaired the council’s inquiry into ethical issues surrounding cosmetic procedures, said: “We’ve been shocked by some of the evidence we’ve seen, including make-over apps and cosmetic surgery ‘games’ that target girls as young as nine.

“There is a daily bombardment from advertising and through social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat that relentlessly promote unrealistic and often discriminatory messages on how people, especially girls and women, ‘should’ look.”

Social media companies should collaborate to carry out independent research looking at the extent to which their apps contribute to appearance anxiety, and to act on the findings, said the report.

Descriptions of the games show how much emphasis is placed on ‘beauty’ with even freckles being described as a ‘skin problem’.

Little Skin Doctor states: “Little Skin Doctor is going to tell you how to keep your skin beautiful and deal with all kinds of skin problems.

“Clean face plays a very important role in beauty. But sometimes we got pimples, wound, freckles and other skin problems. Treat the patients who have skin problems, and do examination for them.”

While Princess Plastic Surgery is centred around an ‘evil witch’ who has made the princesses ‘ugly’.

It says: “SOS! Princesses are cursed by evil witch! The witch made them ugly! Only you can help them! Don’t miss the chance to become a professional plastic surgery doctor!

“Making fantastic surgery and give what princesses dream of. Face, nose, eyes, lip, make any plastic surgery that you can imagine! Become a real surgeon and perform plastic surgeries like a pro!”

Katharine Wright, the Nuffield Council’s assistant director, said: “These things should not be available online.”

Experts say an increasing number of young people are suffering anxiety, depression and low self-esteem as a result of a society-wide obsession with body image and celebrity culture.

In 2015/16, the NSPCC’s ChildLine service received nearly 1,600 contacts from girls worried about body image, a 17 per cent increase on the previous year.

According to a 2017 survey from the National Citizen Service, 27 per cent of late teens cared more about their appearance than their physical health.

Such problems were exacerbated by apps that trivialise cosmetic surgery and turn it into a game, said the report’s authors.

Plastic surgeon Mark Henley, a member of the inquiry group, said: “We would like a ban on these apps, but what we want far more is for society to recognise just how revolting they are.”

The MEN has been unable to contact the apps’ owners.

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