Images of celebrities and models that have been airbrushed or photo shopped ‘hold out an impossible ideal to young people of how they should look', MEP, Nessa Childers, has insisted.

The member of the European Parliament made her comments at a seminar on airbrushing, which she hosted in conjunction with Bodywhys, the Eating Disorders Association of Ireland.

Ms Childers noted that there are major pressures on young people today, such as the cost of third level education and the realisation that they may have to emigrate after they have completed their education.

However, there are also additional challenges they face irrespective of their socio-economic status and culture and these include the pressure to conform ‘to particular cultural or social expectations in terms of their behaviour, dress or appearance'.

"This pressure comes from peers and from the wider society. It is there at a time when our young people are at their most vulnerable psychologically and when they are trying to establish an identity and a space for themselves as individual people," Ms Childers explained.

She pointed to research that has confirmed that young people often feel additional pressure as a result of the body images they see in the media.

"That is why the issue of airbrushed images in our magazines and newspapers is so important. Airbrushed and photo shopped images of models, pop stars or celebrities hold out an impossible ideal to young people of how they should look. The subliminal message to them is ‘conform or else'," she said.

She pointed out that failure to conform can lead to mental health issues, such as depression, anger, under-performance at school and eating disorders.

"We know that the causes of eating disorders are multifaceted but the pressures wrought by manipulated imagery in the media must be among them for some young people," Ms Childers insisted.

She said that society as a whole needs to recognise that the propagation of digitally enhanced images ‘is harming young people'.

She called for the mandatory labeling of airbrushed images in magazines, so that young people know which images have been altered.

"Media owners and editors need to reflect on what they could do to respond, and governments and the European Union need to come up with solutions to this serious health management issue," she added.