Key Points
- A petition is calling for changes to how tanning products - such as oils - are advertised and marketed.
- It comes as influencers share 'sunbaking routines' and recommend tanning products on TikTok.
- Advocates fear awareness and education campaigns are failing to reach young Australians
Thousands of social media posts promoting sunbaking and tanning are sending harmful messages to young generations who may not know any better, advocates say.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the 'slip, slop, slap' campaign and warnings about the dangers of tanning were a prominent fixture of Australian childhood, but has our awareness around tanning and sun damage lapsed over the years?
Today, pro-tanning content has become a popular feature across social media platforms such as TikTok, with users promoting their favourite tanning oils and sharing their tanning routines.
Now, a petition has been launched calling on the federal government to enforce regulations on the advertising of products that promote sun tanning, with advocates calling for more action and education around .
Tanning culture 'alive and well'
Melissa Mason was researching influencers and tanning on social media when she began to consider the companies behind the products.
Products such as tanning oils - which often contain either no SPF or small amounts - encourage consumers to apply the product to their body before laying in the sun to help a natural tan develop.
"It started making me question why are these brands allowed to advertise these products, why are they allowed to advertise them with seemingly no disclaimer?," Ms Mason told SBS News.
"There doesn't seem to be any limitations on them, and when you consider that the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) just recently introduced some very strict guidelines for influencers and brands in the way that they market and advertise sunscreens, that seemed like real hypocrisy for me.
"Tanning culture is alive and well, and there are brands that profit off that with seemingly no regulation."
The writer has started an online petition - which has more than 7,500 signatures at the time of writing - calling on the federal government to investigate advertising and marketing of tanning products in Australia.
Ms Mason said she would like to see tanning accelerants marketed and sold in a similar way to smoking and tobacco products, with stark warnings on packaging to illustrate potential harms.
"To this day, smoking has not stopped, there are still people that smoke, but you cannot avoid the realities of what smoking can do to your body and I think that's my core issue," she said.
"You can easily avoid the reality of what tanning does to your body if you follow these brands' social media pages because there's nothing there to tell you, they blur all of the negativity out, and it's all sold around a 'healthy tan'."
The Department of Health and Aged Care told SBS News if a product does not make any health claims relating to SPF and is only making cosmetic claims, it is likely to be considered a cosmetic product.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is responsible for product safety and labelling standards for consumer products including cosmetics, and a spokesperson confirmed cosmetics are subject to regulation under the Australian Consumer Law.
"There are no requirements in the standard for sun danger warnings," the spokesperson said.
"Therapeutic sunscreen products are those that provide UV radiation protection with Sun Protection Factor (SPF) claims of 4 or more. They are regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)."
Is awareness going backwards?
Australia has the highest rates in the world, and it is the most common cancer in 20 to 39-year-olds in the country, according to the Melanoma Institute Australia.
One Australian is diagnosed with melanoma every 30 minutes, and one dies from melanoma every six hours.
Ms Mason believes young people today may not be absorbing adequate messages about sun safety, particularly due to a lack of education campaigns on major social media platforms.
She says the federal government needs to implement campaigns across social media.
"The last big scary sun campaign was the 'tanning is skin cells in trauma', which we all remember and that was about 15 years ago," she said.
The Dark Side of Tanning Campaign in 2009 and 2010 aimed to increase awareness of the dangers of melanoma and tanning by challenging the misconception that a tan looks healthy. Source: YouTube
"It shouldn't be billboards, it shouldn't be TV, it should be social media."
Professor Georgina Long, co-medical director of the Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA), says tanning trending on social media indicates awareness could be going backwards.
"If we go back decades to the 1970s and 80s, tanning was very very popular," she told SBS News.
"It feels like we're back there and almost worse with the way social media and influencers are promoting beauty and glamourising a tan."
What is the government doing?
The Department of Health and Aged Care told SBS News the government is investing $10 million in a national skin cancer prevention campaign this summer and next in partnership with Cancer Council Australia.
The campaign is designed to reach all Australians with a skew towards males aged over 40.
This focus resulted in a social media advertising strategy focused on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, the department said.
Professor Long says it's imperative for any awareness campaigns and health messaging to keep up with modern communication.
"We communicate digitally via social media, and therefore we need to change the message, we need to highlight that this is a problem and we need to keep that message about UV or sun exposure alive every year," she said.
"We need to keep it fresh and vibrant and relevant for the population today… we are very concerned about the way tan is being glamorised."
How much responsibility can we place on social media?
In a September 2022 address at the National Press Club, representatives from MIA called on the government, advertisers and social media companies to do more to address sun damage and risks of UV exposure.
Shortly afterwards, TikTok partnered with MIA to introduce the 'Tanning. That's Cooked' campaign, which encouraged creators to highlight the dangers of tanning through short comedic videos.
TikTok and Melanoma Institute Australia teamed up to launch a campaign to spread awareness on the dangers surrounding tanning. Credit: TikTok / Melanoma Institute Australia
A TikTok spokesperson told SBS News the company had never banned the #sunburnchallenge from its platform.
Instead, it banned videos that "encourage or glamorise tanning" while adding educational content to the existing hashtag, including a pop-up warning and link directing users to MIA.
"We chose not to ban the hashtag as we know our community responds best to information shared by creators, which includes educational content from medical specialists, or warnings from others relating to the impact and danger of sunburn," the spokesperson said.
"Blanket banning a hashtag can result in the removal of positive messages, including prevention awareness.
"In this instance, the benefits of having prevention messages on-platform, during summer time when people need them, outweighed the decision to completely remove the hashtag."
