My kids know filters exist. They learned it the same way they learned wrestling is staged: from adults talking to them, not from a government label. The CDC's 2023 youth survey found teen girls' persistent sadness at record highs, and social media is part of that story, but slapping a disclaimer on selfies will not fix what is fundamentally a parenting and education gap. CDC. France passed its law in 2023, and French teens still live on TikTok. Labels become wallpaper; we have all learned to ignore cookie banners and terms of service. If we want resilient kids, fund counselors, teach them how images are made, and model better habits at home. A law that outsources parenting to a caption is how you get the appearance of action with none of the results.
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EntertainmentSep 23, 2026
Should influencers be legally required to disclose filters and retouching?
One AGAINST case in this debate
3 comments
Discussion (3)
The wrestling comparison nails it. My dad explained advertising tricks to me when I was ten and it stuck far better than any warning label could. Kids learn skepticism from people they trust, not from fine print under a photo.
Parents cannot be everywhere, and plenty of parents do not understand filters themselves. A simple altered-image tag gives kids a cue to pause, and it costs platforms almost nothing to add. We already label ads; labeling the alteration is the same idea.
Fair point that a label is cheap, but it has to be designed to survive the scroll. If it is tiny gray text nobody reads, it is decoration. Make it prominent or do not bother.