Most girls doctor their online photos. Photo / Getty Images
The vast majority of teenage girls routinely doctor their photographs before posting them on sites such as Facebook because of body image fears, a leading psychiatrist has warned.
As many as nine out of 10 girls digitally enhance pictures before sharing them online, according to Dr Pippa Hugo, a consultant
at the private Priory Hospital in southwest London.
Retouching pictures to look thinner, for example, has become the "new normal" for young people fearing cyberbullying, said Hugo, who specialises in eating disorders at the hospital.
Doctors from Priory hospitals have been touring schools to raise awareness of eating disorders and offering advice to teachers and pupils on steps they can take to recognise and combat the problem.
The strategy includes talks on airbrushed celebrity photographs and the effects they can have on attitudes to real body shapes.
