Photo apps that edit a person's face and body should be age restricted.
That's according to leading mental health experts in the UK.
They believe the move is necessary to protect the mental and physical well being of young people.
Dr. Malie Coyne is a Clinical Psychologist and a lecturer in NUIG.
She says it can add to the problems of those who may have low self-esteem:
"You have to think of pre-teens and teenagers as being in a process of identity development."
"They're very prone to comparing themselves to others."
"Also feeling not good enough when that comparison is unfavourable."
"So when you think about it these photo editing apps are adding fuel to the fire in a way."
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Comparing Photo-Altered Images To Yourself
Dr. Malie Coyne says it's not fair to say these apps will cause difficulties like body-dysmorphic disorder.
However she believes it adds fuel to the fire.
"A teen might have low self esteem anyway, not all teens of course."
"But for the teen that does, they're looking for more validation online."
"When they do go online they start to compare themselves to unrealistic images of other people."
"But now with these photo-altering apps, they've got the added ability to change their own images online."
"Then they can start to compare themselves to the photo-altered version and that can make them feel not good enough."
It's Not That Easy To Ban These Apps
However it's difficult for platforms to ban these apps, even if they wanted to.
Philip Arneill is Head of Education & Innovation at CyberSafe Ireland:
"We'd recommend parents to use technical restrictions to filter content and lock down what their kids can do in that sense.
"Things will always get through, things will always slip through the net."
"It's really important that we're talking to our kids about this."
He adds that CyberSafe are trying to teach people that, "the internet works in a certain way."
"It's designed with certain algorithims to direct content towards us, to create these bubbles."
"When kids are going on social media apps, based on who they're following and the kind of things they're liking, they are then fed content along those themes."
"I think it's really important for young people to understand the way that whole landscape works."
