30/05/2012

MPs Propose Body Image Lessons For Children

School children could be forced to take body image and self-esteem lessons under new MP recommendations.

A report from the All Party Parliamentary Group on body image heard how more than half of the public has a negative body image and that girls as young as five now worry about their appearance.

The Reflections on Body Image report, which followed a three-month inquiry, an online consultation and oral evidence, found media images of unrealistic bodies were largely to blame.

The cross-party group also heard cosmetic surgery rates have increased by nearly 20% since 2008.

APPG chairwoman, Jo Swinson MP, told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme there was a "definite problem" with body image and that has "serious consequences".

"It's something which has existed for a long time... but in terms of the scale of it, that is what is new, and it is being driven by the proliferation of media imagery portraying a so-called 'perfected ideal' that is entirely unattainable for the vast majority of people," she told the radio station.

(GK)

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