New App Criticized For Allowing Teens to Picture Themselves With Breast Implants
A new iPhone app is under fire for allowing teens to picture themselves or others with breast implants. According to The Courier Mail, the online Apple store recommends the app, known as iAugment, for iPhone users aged 12 or older.
The breast implant simulator carries a maturity rating of 12+, meaning that the company has deemed it appropriate for teenagers. The program allows users to take a picture of their chest and enhance the image to simulate different bra cup sizes, approximating the results of getting breast implants. They can then upload the photos to Facebook or find a surgeon for real-life breast enhancement.
Melinda Tankard Reist, a women's rights activist, called the app inappropriate, saying “We have a huge problem in this country with body image and anxiety, and are seeing this being expressed in younger girls every day,... A simulator like this plays into that by normalizing breast enhancement.”
By targeting teens, she says “This app is just priming and preparing girls for future surgeries. Rather than helping them accept their natural bodies, it makes them feel from an early age that there is something wrong with them.” Vispi Bhopti, a spokesman for Apple, refused to comment on the app's age rating.