Teens 'like' slim images

Most girls doctor their online photos. Photo / Getty Images

The vast majority of teenage girls routinely doctor their photographs before posting them on sites such as Facebook because of body image fears, a leading psychiatrist has warned.

As many as nine out of 10 girls digitally enhance pictures before sharing them online, according to Dr Pippa Hugo, a consultant at the private Priory Hospital in southwest London.

Retouching pictures to look thinner, for example, has become the "new normal" for young people fearing cyberbullying, said Hugo, who specialises in eating disorders at the hospital.

Doctors from Priory hospitals have been touring schools to raise awareness of eating disorders and offering advice to teachers and pupils on steps they can take to recognise and combat the problem.

The strategy includes talks on airbrushed celebrity photographs and the effects they can have on attitudes to real body shapes.

Specialists have warned the so-called "selfie" culture could be fuelling an increase in conditions such as anorexia. The Priory has seen the number of patients between 12 and 17 admitted for such conditions jump from 75 in 2010 to 139 last year - a rise of 85 per cent.

National Health Service figures show the number of teenage girls treated in hospital for eating disorders doubled to 1656 in the past three years.

Hugo said traditional teenage pressures to look slim had been accentuated by online bullying and the growth of social media.

Image doctoring websites and online tutorials have also made the practice commonplace, she added.

"Bullying is not an unusual experience in our patients and it presents a dilemma for them as many feel they need to use Facebook and other social media channels to feel part of their peer group," she said.