A New Zealand petition against cartoonish plastic surgery apps that target young children is gathering thousands of signatures, as part of a worldwide campaign.
If it successfully gathers its goal of 5000 signatures, the petition would be delivered to Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai and Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos.
New Zealand petition founder Angela Barnett said it was not the idea of plastic surgery apps on their own that the group was targeting, but rather ones that specifically were targeting young children.
"They're plastic surgery games that really attract children because they have princess faces, mermaids, and often animated cartoon faces. They simulate plastic surgery, you can get liposuction, lips enhanced, eyelifts, face lifts, botox," she told Alison Mau on RadioLIVE.
Ms Barnett wants the tech giants to change their policies to make sure their online stores don't contain any of these games and apps.
"It's creating this idea that there's something wrong with your appearance, and you should look for flaws, and that it's something you need to change or fix," she says.
"Especially for women we get this a lot throughout our lives, and we don't want eight-and-nine-year-olds starting to think about that."
The petition currently has over 3000 signatures.
Newshub.
