Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1391768
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 JULY 2021 10 NEWS LAURA CALLEJA DO you Facetune your photos? In Norway, you now have to de- clare when using the photo ma- nipulation app that allows you to make your nose look smaller, whiten your teeth, and enhance your cheekbones. It can be hard to tell which photos on social media have been edited to produce pic- ture-perfect results that cancel out all blemishes. But legislators in Norway have passed new regulations requir- ing social media influencers and advertisers, to label retouched photos and fight unrealistic beauty standards. The new regulations were passed as an amendment to the nation's Marketing Act, and now mandate a standardised la- bel designed by the ministry for children and family affairs for ads where a body's shape, size or skin has been retouched, even with an app filter like Facetune. Examples include enlarged lips, a narrowed waist, and exagger- ated muscles, but it's not clear if the same will apply to adjust- ments of lighting or saturation. Still, violations are punishable with escalating fines, and in ex- treme cases, even imprisonment. The move comes amidst con- tinued public debate in Nor- way surrounding "kroppspress", the word used to explain "body pressure" or "beauty standards" and if these contributed to low self-esteem in young people. But would a disclaimer on what is being filtered improve peo- ple's self-esteem? The model Madeleine Baldac- chino has amassed over 139,000 followers on Instagram, and she is in favour of the law, saying she thinks it would be great to im- plement it locally. "I'm very anti photo manipu- lation," Baldacchino says, who adds that in modelling, bodies are often manipulated against models' will. "My experience as a model as well as an occasional content creator, where we don't have control over the photos of us being published, is that this can have serious consequences on models' own body image." Baldacchino says influencers give a false representation of what they look like online when manipulating their image, caus- ing their younger audiences to be "easily manipulated and inse- cure." Another supporter of the Nor- wegian law is the plus-size in- fluencer Emily Jones, who with over 200,000 followers, has been determined not to alter her im- ages to promote a natural look. "I'm 31 and even I find myself getting self-conscious when I scroll through my phone, so I can't imagine what it's like for young people," Jones said. She takes the example of the Kardashians, who alter every photo and don't let anything be posted unless their team ap- proves it. "Not even the most beautiful people in the world really look like what they're pre- senting online," Jones says. "Peo- ple having to declare if they've altered their photos could only be a good thing and might pro- mote a more natural look." The co-founder of online fem- inist community Għajjejt u Xba- jt, Sofia Mifsud, sees apps like FaceTune altering the lines be- tween make-believe and creating an entirely false image around oneself. "With Photoshop coming in- to play years ago, I think this was only a natural progression of things, particularly with the ability to have more and more editing tools in the palm of your hand. I think the most harmful altered images for youths on so- cial media are those that are be- ing created to sell a false facade and lifestyle," Mifsud said. Mifsud said she was in favour of introducing a similar law. "I think if you are editing your im- ages for fun, then you have abso- lutely nothing to hide, and peo- ple should not be looking to sell a fake image to impressionable young people, particularly when it comes to their looks. I think it will help. "I grew up modelling and being altered by photographers con- stantly, and it really warped the way I even saw myself," she said. Mifsud said that informing an audience that one has edited their body and image lends itself to accountability and allows one to reflect on what they are com- municating subconsciously to their audience. "Just like in many places influencers now have to declare that they are selling products or conducting an ad on social media, the same should apply to using editing tools," she said. Future is gloomy for early school-leavers NICOLE MEILAK MALTA'S rate of ear- ly school-leavers (ESLs) has halved compared to its 2005 levels, standing at 16.7% in 2020. Yet despite the improvement, Malta's ESL rate remains the highest in the EU, an analysis by the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) shows. The share of the population with a tertiary level of educa- tion almost trebled during the same period, rising from 10.3% to 28%. By last year, 40.3% had at best a basic level of education equivalent to lower secondary education, while 31.7% had an upper secondary or post-sec- ondary, non-tertiary level. But while early school leavers may still find a job, lacking ba- sic qualifications compromises employability later in life due to lacking skills, and this has economic and social costs, the Central Bank said. Data from 2018 reveals that median gross hourly earnings for those with a tertiary level of education were 40% higher than those with an intermedi- ate level. For those possessing a basic level of education, this discrepancy shoots up to 65%. Employment rates have con- sistently been higher among those with a tertiary level of education, while for low and medium levels of education the opposite holds true. In fact, the employment rate for persons aged 15-64 with a higher edu- cation qualification was 89.4% in 2020. This is 14.2 percentage points higher than that of people with a medium level of education, and 27.6 points higher than that of people with a basic level of education. Those with a basic level of education are still often able to find employment once they've left school. In fact, the study reports that almost seven out of ten ESLs in Malta were employed in 2020 – the high- est employment rate for ESLs across the EU. "This suggests that the de- spite the lack of official quali- fications, early school leavers in Malta may still possess skills that are relevant for the labour market," the CBM study said. But the study's author pre- dicts a gloomy future for Mal- tese ESLs, with only one in ten jobs within reach for those with a basic level of education, as demand for those with low qualifications is projected to fall. This trend is evident even now, where the employment rate for those with a low level of education declined in 2020. And this indeed suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic hit the less-educated workers the hardest. "Upskilling and on-the- job training as part of life- long-learning schemes could prove to be an alternative to formal education, while help- ing individuals to progress up the career ladder or find alter- native employment when they are unlikely to return to formal education," the report recom- mends. Influencers back 'warning' label for airbrushed social media snaps Before and after: the Kardashian matriarch and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay get 'facetuned' to hide their beautiful wrinkles Only natural: models Madeleine Baldacchino and Emily Jones back the Norwegian labelling for airbrushed snaps on social media