It’s every female’s dream to keep their faces quiet and younger. Perform brief and perfect nostril, lips, eyes, and skin surgeries on this incredible Plastic Surgery Girls Game!” Such is the persuasive messaging in an unfastened recreation on Google Play, rated for three years and older. Horrified at the character of those video games, eight ladies (myself protected) from Endangered Bodies International, in conjunction with The Butterfly Foundation and La Trobe University, started a joint petition ultimate year on Change.Org.

Together, representing the USA, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Ireland, and Argentina, we shared why we desired Apple, Google, and Amazon to implement policies concerning cosmetic surgery apps concentrated on younger minds.

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The apps and video games, typically loose to download, feature lively characters, princesses and mermaids, attracting younger kids, coaching them about nostril jobs, liposuction, and eye lifts pronouncing such things as: ‘Perform the cosmetic surgical operation in your sufferers to make their face more lovely than ever.

A cosmetic surgical procedure is an adult selection, now not something to train young minds. ‘Our societies are saturated with pics of ideal and inconceivable our bodies. Globally, youngsters need to be challenged and stimulated through their video games, no longer to spend their free time disturbing about how they look,’ we said in our petition.

Many ‘games’ also promoted western splendor, encouraging players to carry out double eyelid surgical treatment, a procedure popular in Asia, and lighten darker pores and skin. In February 2017, a story ran on Stuff: ‘hundreds signal petition to ban cosmetic surgical treatment apps concentrated on children!’ Back then, ‘heaps’ had been a trifling 2700. It could take plenty greater to make change appear.

Petition signatures quickly grew to 10k, then 20k, and media picked it up in Germany, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, India, Spain, South Africa, and Brazil. We even heard from a PR consultant from Apple, who then proved elusive and not possible to really connect with. By the time we reached 100,000 signatures at the end of 2017, we had thought we had sufficient to make the change. We didn’t. We wished for greater noise!

We wrote to the marketers of Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, and Emma Watson. The Independent within the UK ran a story wherein the Nuffield Council on Bioethics became stated as reporting that plastic surgical operation apps are “beside the point and irresponsible.”

They highlighted that “rising ranges of ‘frame dissatisfaction’ are related to factors including … multiplied use of the score of pix of the self and the body through social media ‘likes’, and via self-tracking apps and video games”.

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Sharon Haywood, director of Endangered Bodies Argentina (AnyBody Argentina), advised the Independent, “Cosmetic surgical procedure video games promote the idea that someone’s frame is a ‘thing to be constant.’ Worse is that the surgical operation detail is treated so lightly.”

Then in April, a mothers’ weblog in the US, All the Moms, ran a story, and sooner or later, it tipped. The Verge first mentioned it, then the Washington Post, USA Today, CBS News, and then the petition hit The Today Show. Finally, with 150,000 signatures, Apple took observe. Tom Neumayr, Apple’s spokesperson, launched an announcement to the media, “We do now not need nor permit these varieties of apps on the shop. We have rules in place towards those apps and do no longer provide them on the App Store.”

A search of the Apple save confirmed the video games had been gone; however, we, as a group, have been cautious. In 2014, lawsuits had visible similar games eliminated, quietly, handiest for them to return over the years. So we took our time, and collectively, we monitored the app shop. To make certain. We persevered to write to Amazon and Google (and have been left out). Finally, after six months of monitoring and confirming the apps did not reappear, we have declared victory with Apple.

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Endangered Bodies representative from Brazil, Daniela Araujo, stated, “Its first-rate to look at our efforts and patience has resulted in growing more secure digital surroundings for kids around the globe. Haywood adds, “We’re pleased Apple took motion however it’d be best if Apple’s coverage turned into to be had online to both the public and app developers, not most effective to outline clear guidelines but to set a fashionable for other systems, which include Google and Amazon, to comply with.”

We’re hopeful Google and Amazon will comply with – who desires to be beaten using Apple? In the interim, for parents with younger youngsters downloading unfastened apps from Google or Amazon, test. If you see them playing cosmetic surgical treatment video games, quietly eliminate them and focus on greater crucial sports than changing their look.

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I love writing, traveling, and creating original content, which is why I love the fashion world. It's not about trends or following the "what's hot" list, it's about creating content that people are actually excited to read.