Meta Bans Beauty Filters for Teens in the Age of “Looksmaxxing”

The Trend: $400 facials. Paying AI to tell you what’s wrong with your face. Bone-breaking surgery. These are just a few things we can arguably (perhaps inarguably) link to the “looksmaxxing” era. As these consequences of our ultra-online world have rolled in, so, too have potential fixes. Meta, for example, is banning beauty filters for teen accounts, while school districts around the country are prioritizing low-tech learning environments and free play, inspired by Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation. 

What People Are Saying: One psychologist told Allure that more and more young patients are “becoming obsessed with perfection and feeling extremely lonely,” going so far as refusing to leave the house if they have a blemish. While some say Meta’s ban is a step in the right direction, Suzanne Wallach, LMFT, says, “If we want to be serious about teen mental health, we have to look at the entire system of social media.” 

What to Know: The impact of social media use on teen mental health is well-documented. Conditions like anxiety, depression, ADHD, and body dysmorphic disorder have all risen rapidly over the last few decades, and researchers point to the growing use of social media and technology as a potential culprit. Combined with declining creativity as a result of AI use, it seems like society is collectively reaching a point of “that’s enough.”