UNITED KINGDOM: Girls under 16 should be banned from catwalks and photoshoots, according to inquiry into size zero models

Girls aged under 16 should be banned from catwalk modelling to protect them from eating disorders and sexual exploitation, a panel of fashion and health experts said on Wednesday (July 11). Older teenagers also need more protection, including chaperones at shows, according to the Model Health Inquiry, a group investigating models' health. The panel said there was a trend for the industry to use younger models, who are more vulnerable to eating disorders such as anorexia. "There was also strongly expressed concern that it is profoundly inappropriate that girls under 16 ... should be portrayed as adult women," said Baroness Kingsmill, chair of the the panel. "The risk of sexualising these children was high and designers could risk charges of sexual exploitation." The inquiry was set up by the British Fashion Council, which runs London Fashion Week, in the wake of a long-running controversy over super-thin "size zero" models. The panel rejected the idea of weighing models and banning those under a certain weight. It said "size zero" doesn't exist in British shops and is "meaningless". It received mixed evidence on whether models should have tests to assess their body mass index, a measure of fat. Many models told the inquiry that they feared losing work because they were not thin enough. As well as eating disorders, the panel highlighted health risks from stress, substance abuse and poor working conditions. "We have grave concerns about other health areas, such as drug and alcohol abuse and the stress caused by working conditions for model," the panel's interim report says. "We are also concerned that modelling is very much a hidden profession with very little transparency about the working conditions that many models have to endure." The panel wants better training for designers and agents to help them spot models with eating disorders. There should be a clampdown on drugs and smoking backstage and models should have access to healthy food, it added. The "size zero" debates were sparked by the death of two South American models last year. Ana Caroline Reston who died of an infection caused by anorexia and Luisel Ramos, who died collapsed and died backstage from a heart attack. Her sister Eliana Ramos, also a model, died at the age of 18 of a heart attack. In response, the British Fashion Council released a statement welcoming the recommendations and adding: 'There are several key recommendations within the interim report which are consistent with and support the BFC's already well-established policy on minimum model age, no smoking and no drug use at BFC run venues. 'the BFC is responsible for organising London Fashion Week but supporting models does not fall within its remit. If the BFC is to take on a broader role in this important area, new sources of funding will be required.' In January, a 14-year-old Brazilian girl who dreamt of being a model died of anorexia weighing only 38 kilos and measuring 1.70 metres. Early in her childhood Maiara already wished to become a model, but anorexia got in the way of a young girl's dreams. Maiara, who lived in Rio de Janeiro, had always been a slim child, but began to lose weight very quickly in the few months leadin up to her death. This exaggerated loss worried her family and she was taken her to a hospital, where she spent nearly one month before dying of a cardiac arrest on Saturday (January 06). Her father, Marcos Vieira said he would never have let her become so skinny, but they only encouraged her because it was her biggest dream. Her mother said Maiara was always on a diet, but had stopped eating moths ago. At this point the teenager was no longer able to climb the staircase that led to her room. A final report by Lady Kingsmill will be released in early September and rules may be implemented to coincide with London Fashion Week.

ITN Source | July 13, 2007

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