LONDON, Jan 27 (BBC): The growing trend of children as young as eight using skincare products could leave them with irreversible skin problems, the British Association for Dermatologists has warned.
Some children are asking their parents for luxury items after seeing them used by their favourite influencers on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. But many of these contain potentially harmful active ingredients intended for adults only, such as exfoliating acids. They can provoke allergies or eczema.
Eight-year-old Sadie first saw skincare videos on TikTok, where influencers would talk about "how good they were on the skin".
She was particularly attracted to a product from the company Bubble, which "when you push down, comes up in [the shape of] a flower", she tells BBC News, and US brand Drunk Elephant because "she liked the packaging a lot" and it sold everything from lip balms to moisturisers.
BBC News has also received messages from several parents worried about their child's interest in skincare - and the influence of social media and friends.
With its bright colourful packaging and cartoon-animal logo, Drunk Elephant is one of the brands most frequently featured in adult and child influencers' online skincare content.
But many of its bestsellers, which cost about £60 each, contain exfoliators such as alpha and beta hydroxy acids and vitamin-A derivative retinol. Skincare content is unrestricted on social media and many daily-routine and get-ready-with-me videos attract millions of views.
One skincare YouTuber has collated several from TikTok, showing children using harmful products.
Other content creators have visited beauty stores - as workers at Sephora and US-based Ulta say children frequently abuse in-store testers and clear shelves of products as soon as they come into stock.
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