- Children are routinely exposed to harmful appearance-changing products online, including weight loss injections, skin lightening products and steroids
- Most told the Children’s Commissioner exposure negatively impacted their self-esteem – with two in five seeing prescription only weight loss drugs like Ozempic and one in 12 buying or trying non-prescription weight loss pills
- Dame Rachel de Souza calls for stronger regulation and enforcement of age-restricted products being sold online, and a ban on all advertising to children on social media platforms
Children are being routinely bombarded with online advertisements for products that claim to change their bodies and appearance – from weight loss injections and diet pills to muscle building supplements and cosmetic procedures – with damaging consequences for their health and self-esteem, the Children’s Commissioner has found.
Dame Rachel de Souza’s new report comes as the government is to consult on children’s online experiences and a potential social media ban, and paints a stark picture of the online world flooded with a relentless cycle of advertising and influencer content that exploits children’s insecurities, before offering them products to fix their perceived flaws.
One 17-year- old girl told the Commissioner: “It’s like, you don’t want this, this will fix that, and you don’t want to have weird eyebrows, so this will fix that, and this will fix your eyelashes, this will fix your lips, and this will fix your nose, and this will fix your hair, and this will fix your nails…” – Girl, 17
Children described how just seeing these products online, even without buying or using them, was enough to make them feel inadequate and under constant pressure to change their bodies. Of children surveyed, aged 13 to 17, more than three quarters (78%) said being exposed to appearance-changing products negatively impacted young people’s self-esteem – with girls more likely to report this than boys.
Children told the Commissioner’s team of a ‘relentless’ stream of social media and advertising content focused on bodies and looks. It follows findings from the Commissioner’s major survey in 2024, The Big Ambition, which found just 40% of girls and 60% of boys were happy with how they look.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said:
“Childhood is a short and precious time, but it is undeniable that children today are facing pressures like never before, with too many children growing up in an online world that takes advantage of their insecurities and tells them they are not good enough as they are.
“Extreme and potentially dangerous appearance changing products are being normalised to children through advertising, influencer culture and online posts, despite many of these products being unsafe, illegal or strictly age restricted. For their developing and fragile sense of self-esteem, this is immensely damaging.
“Many parts of the online world are not built with children’s best interests at heart. The government should consider every mechanism available to protect children from harmful content and services, including restricting children’s access to some social media platforms, but a social media ban for under 16s can only be one part of the solution. It is not an immediate guarantee that children will be safer online.
“Any ban must respond to what children think and how they behave online, with a clear plan of how it will be enforced so that it does not drive children to other, darker parts of the internet. Urgent action is needed to create an online world that is truly safer by design. We cannot continue to accept an online world that profits from children’s insecurities and constantly tells them they need to change or must be better.”
Young people spoke about the prevalence of advertisements they saw online, with many of these products being promoted on social media in lifestyle short-form content posted by content creators with a range of followings:
- Children were widely exposed to dieting and weight loss products, more than half of children had seen exercise and diet plans (54%) and food and drink products claiming to aid weight loss (52%).
- Two in five children (41%) had seen prescription only weight loss injections online, such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, despite a ban on advertising these drugs. Young people reported seeing other teenagers using them online, or misleading adverts promoting them as a quick fix for weight loss.
- Black (46%) and Asian (35%) children were more likely than white children (24%) to see skin lightening products, despite many of these products being illegal to sell in the UK and containing toxic ingredients.
- Boys (43%) were more likely than girls to see supplements for muscle building than girls (32%), more than half of boys had seen protein powder. A quarter of children (24%) had seen drugs like steroids online.
- Exposure to beauty products and procedures was widespread, with two thirds of children (66%) seeing teeth whitening products online and over half of girls (56%) seeing cosmetic procedures such as fillers or Botox, despite these procedures being illegal for under 18s.
The Commissioner’s research revealed children’s exposure to these appearance-changing products online translated to risky behaviour, with some children (8%) buying or trying non-prescription pills that claim to aid weight loss, despite these products often being age restricted to over-18s.
One in five (21%) of children had bought or tried food or drink marketed for weight loss, with black children more likely to try these products, as well as exercise and diet plans, than white children.
Children described beauty content as ‘unavoidable’. In some extreme cases, children reported reactions after buying or trying appearance-changing products online, including infections from eyelash products that contained undisclosed chemicals.
Children were concerned that many products sold online, which would require professional licences if used in salons, could be purchased by anyone with a few clicks – feeling online advertising was poorly regulated, describing the internet as a “free for all”.
In her report, A healthy influence? Children’s exposure to appearance-changing products online, the Children’s Commissioner is calling for urgent action to better protect children online, including:
- Stop all advertising to children on social media by amending the Online Safety Act to include a clear duty of care so social media platforms assess risks across the whole of their service and stop showing adverts to children.
- Changes to Ofcom’s Children’s Code of Practice to explicitly protect children from body stigma content, which Ofcom has identified as a risk to children but has not included a single safety measure in the Code.
- Stronger regulation and enforcement of online sales of age restricted products, ensuring children cannot purchase items intended for adults.
- Further age restrictions on what children can see and do online, with government and regulators using existing powers to limit what content children can see online. The government should consider every mechanism available to protect children from harmful content and services, including restricting children’s access to some social media platforms.
Children’s testimonies:
“It’s like, you don’t want this, this will fix that, and you don’t want to have weird eyebrows, so this will fix that, and this will fix your eyelashes, this will fix your lips, and this will fix your nose, and this will fix your hair, and this will fix your nails, and this will fix that” – Girl, 17
“I’ve seen people on TikTok, you know, like Ozempic. I’ve seen teenagers using it to lose weight, but teenagers using Ozempic, it’s so wrong because obviously they’re taking injections for the rest of their life. […] saying, oh, it’s so good and stuff, but they don’t actually know the side effects to it” – Girl, 16.
“[Influencers] make it seem like taking steroids is very cool. […] And a lot of the influencers that I watch, they take creatine, which is a supplement that can make your muscles look bigger and then also protein powders, they, like, advertise. […] A lot of them have their codes with […] protein brands and you get like 10% off from it.” – Girl, 16.
“TikTok, I definitely see a lot for skin care and makeup, especially because they’ve got TikTok Shop. I see a lot of people advertising with the Tik Tok shop with the videos.” – Girl, 17.
“I saw this video on TikTok saying this […] would grow your lashes back in two weeks […] it showed all these fake photos, and it didn’t tell me any of the side effects. And then I got an eye infection and a stye because it didn’t show all the proper ingredients on the list. And then I searched it up and it had, … I don’t know what it’s called. It’s this chemical. It’s like a hormone chemical […] I had to go on antibiotics. […]. I did loads of research before I bought it […] all these influencers were saying that it grew their lashes back” – Girl, 16.
