Israel Rings in New Year With New Law Affecting Models

Israel is ringing in the New Year with a new law, to help combat the effects images of underweight and even emaciated models have on young girls.

As the New Year began, so too did Israel’s so-called “models law” which began on New Year’s Day, and which prohibits the appearance of underweight models in advertisements.

The law, which was approved by the Knesset in March 2012, requires models to have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of at least 18.5, which is considered to be the minimum BMI for a healthy person, for at least three months prior to taking part in a photo shoot for any ads.

The new law is the brainchild of Likud’s Danny Danon and Kadima’s Rachel Adatto, who, in light of the recent increase in eating disorders reported in Israeli society, especially among young girls, drafted the law in an attempt to which aims to discourage the glamourization of models who are too thin.

“This law is another step in the war against eating disorders,” said Adatto, who is also a physician, after a preliminary reading of the draft law in 2011. “Underweight models can no longer serve as role models for innocent young people who adopt and copy the illusion of thinness.”

Under the new law, advertisers who photoshop images to get rid of excess weight from their models, must clearly mark the photos to let readers know that they have been changed.