Israel Has A New Law That Is Now In Effect: “The Photoshop Law”

Consistently, issues with digitally altered photos have appeared in the media. In specific, the way they affect younger women by what they see in images, whether in magazines or elsewhere. Now, Israel has taken proactive steps. 

They now have a new law in effect, “The Photoshop Law.”

“As of January 1, models who want to work in print ads and runway shows in Israel must provide potential employers with medical proof certifying that they have a body mass index (BMI) of at least 18.5. The new law is nicknamed “the Photoshop law” because of an additional regulation placed on advertisers requiring clear labeling on ads featuring digitally-altered images of models.”

So it’s essentially taking out two birds with one stone, guaranteeing that models must be of a healthy BMI (healthy is relative, of course), and that images in the media must be clearly labeled if they have been retouched or modified.

Even as a retoucher, I do not mind this. It doesn’t say that no images can be retouched but it does require labeling them so people are well aware.

So why now?

“The numbers of Israeli women and girls suffering from eating disorders now match those of industrialized Western countries, but the problem went largely unacknowledged until the 2007 death of a well-known Israeli model.”

The only downside here is that all advertisements shot abroad (not domestically) do not need to be labeled yet.

I wanted to ask our readers, do you feel this is a step in the right direction? Would you like to see something like this happen to other countries around the world?

[Via Jesse Grubbs via Big Think]