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If You Use a Body-Editing App, Should You Have to Say So?

March 2026
Illustration by Max Erwin

Smooth hair, airbrushed faces, and toned bodies. These are just some of the features you’re probably used to seeing in photos on social media. Celebrities and influencers—as well as people like your peers and classmates—use body-editing apps to present artificially polished versions of themselves online. Research shows that teens scrolling through social media can develop low self-esteem, body image issues, and even disordered eating from comparing themselves to these images.

Sometimes it’s obvious when a photo has been edited, but other times it’s hard to tell. Do you think that social media users should have to make it clear when they’ve used a body-editing app? Some say it could lead to greater transparency online, while others believe it could take away from our right to free speech and artistic expression. What do you think?

Yes

I believe people should have to reveal when they’re using body- and face-editing apps. If they don’t, adolescents and even adults who see “perfect” bodies online might develop unreachable expectations of how they should look. Struggling to attain those unrealistic goals can lower their self-esteem and even lead to more serious consequences, like self-harm.

But if people have to share when they use a digital retouching tool, it might help protect the self-esteem of those who see these online images. Implementing a rule that requires a person to reveal when their post has been put through a body-editing app will lower the number of edited videos and photos posted on social media. That will protect teens’ mental health and create a safer, more inclusive environment online.

- Lenox Hancock, 9th-grader

No

Social media platforms should not force people to share their use of body-editing apps. Photos are like any form of art, and requiring social media users to do such a thing unfairly takes away their personal freedom. Social media is a place where people want to show themselves at their very best. For many, this means editing.

Those in favor of making social media users share their editing app usage believe that edited photos push unrealistic standards on viewers that can cause stress and anxiety. However, many may not feel comfortable sharing images that aren’t “perfect,” and the stigma around the use of editing apps would only alienate people.

Additionally, there are free speech concerns. It is a form of controlling speech to make people share the methods behind their photos.

- Vineet Petlur, 11th-grader

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Debate photos courtesy of families; Westend61 on Offset (Middle Screen); Shutterstock.com (All Other Images)

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