Kids these days love to click selfies. Whether it’s their food, fun with friends, or something else, it all comes down to clicking pictures. And, to perfect these selfies, they need excellent photo editing. If your kids are addicted to taking selfies, a photo-editing app will be a necessity. And today, we will discuss one such app that is most likely on one of your teenager’s phones--Facetune.
Facetune is a fun-looking photo-editing app for editing, retouching, and enhancing pictures. Even though the app is exciting and valuable, we can’t deny that it’s creating a false sense of beauty among kids. That is what worries parents. If you, too, are a parent of young kids addicted to photo editing and enhancing, this article is for you.
What is Facetune?
Do not assume Facetune to be a new app; it was released in March 2013, and since then, it has become one of the most popular photo editing apps for teenagers. The Facetune photo-editing app enables users to modify selfies and portraits. Along with its static photo editing features, the app also deals with adding effects to videos.
What does Facetune Offer?
Facetune is available on Android and iOS devices. The app's interface is simple, but its features are pretty fascinating. For example, the app allows you to modify your face and body differently. For example, you can go for a smaller waist, a thinner nose, and a look with brighter skin.
Another exciting feature is live editing, which enables you to edit the image and check it in the camera when you are ready to take your photo.
The basic version of the app is entirely free. However, if someone wants to access more tools and features, they can buy the VIP pass for $8 per month, which is $36 per year. There's also a one-time purchase of $70, which is value for money.
Facetune is available in three variables Facetune2, Facetune video, and Seen. But, the subscription for each of these comes separately as the company has not yet bundled up the apps.
Why do Kids Like Facetune?
The app can be tempting for not just kids and teenagers but all age groups because of its remarkable editing features. For example, the app has an Impressive-editing suite that automatically detects facial features and allows users to enlarge or shrink their eyes, nose, and mouth.
While some kids simply have fun with it by making more amicable faces, others use the app to be someone they aspire to be. Another reason this app is getting so popular is because of the virtual standards of social media. The editing tools and features of Facetune enable teenagers to live up to the beauty standard of most social apps like Instagram.
- It has an Animated Interface: Subway Surfers has inspirational designs, illustrations, and graphic elements made by the world's best designers. In addition, the 3D animated interface of the game is stunning and eye-catching. This beautiful animation is one of the reasons why kids love the game.
- It is Easy to Play: The game is straightforward, especially on Ipad and tablets. All kids have to swipe left, right, up, or down. To use a hoverboard, all they've to do is to double click.
- Can Change Different Characters: Another exciting thing about subway surfers is you can change players. They're about 14 constant players apart from bonus players that users can buy. Most kids love playing with Jack, while others prefer Prince or Zeo.
Potential Risks of Apps Like Facetune
It's fine if your kids use the Facetune app for some much-needed editing, like removing stains from their dress or deleting a stranger who crashed an excellent photo. But, if they are using it for developing their facial and body features, this can become a vicious cycle and cause issues.
- Body image anxiety
Apps like Facetune have been responsible for promoting fake beauty standards and fueling mental health crises among young minds. Several studies have found that a higher dissatisfaction with your looks leads to poor quality of life and even psychological distress, which is also called body image anxiety; you need to prevent your kids from it.
- Unrealistic beauty expectations
In a survey done by the Mental Health Foundation, it was found that 37% of young adults aged 18 to 24 are ashamed of their body image. Editing an image and changing it into something untrue is not just harmful to the person who is editing it but also forces the audience consuming it to develop unrealistic beauty standards.
- Create pressure to undergo surgeries
When teenagers experience a high level of body dissatisfaction, they tend to bend toward the negative, self-harming approaches like dieting and unhealthy weight loss programs and develop conditions like bulimia and anorexia. Not just this, but some of these kids are also ready to undergo invasive procedures to look better.
According to the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, in 2020 alone more than two 30,000 cosmetic surgeries and 140,000 non-invasive procedures were performed on teenagers aged between 13 to 19 years.
Tips for Parents on Kids and Facetune
Developing an addiction to apps like Facetune can harm your kid's overall well-being. First, you need to understand why they use the app. Second, find out how much time they spend on these apps and whether they are insecure about their looks. Some other preventive steps you can take are:
- Listen to their concerns
You first need to understand what's going on with your kids. There are so many things that kids struggle with but cannot share with their parents. Start a conversation with something like even, "I struggled with the thought of my less than perfect body. Soon I realized that these are all some bad thoughts that should not take over your life." Be a good listener and let them open up to you.
- Talk about beauty standards
You must talk to your kids about false beauty standards from the beginning. For example, tell them there is nothing like a perfect body. Beauty cannot be decided by skin color, weight, or height, it comes from inside, and the most beautiful people are those who have a good heart.
- Do not discourage them
Knowingly or unknowingly, parents demotivate their kids about their body appearance. For instance, we often complain about putting on weight and how a dress is not looking good just because of weight gain. There shouldn't be any talk like this in the house. Instead, family time should be about body comfort, acceptance, health, nutrition, and fitness.
What can Wondershare FamiSafe Do?
If you are still worried that your kids are giving in to false beauty standards with apps like Facetune, maybe a parental control app like Wondershare FamiSafe can restate your worries.
Being one of the best parental control apps, FamiSafe will allow you to control screen time, track browsing history, and block apps like Facetune. Have a detailed look at these features:
- Activity Report
Another great feature of this app is the activity report, which gives you an insight into how much time your kids are spending online and on which app. Depending on this report, you can block and schedule their app usage.
- Screen Time Management
Parents can now reduce screen time on an app like Facetune. According to experts, children above the age of 6-18 should not spend more than 2 hours/day online, approximately no more than 20 minutes on apps like Face tune. FamiSafe allows you to set this limit, and once the times up, FamiSafe will block the app automatically.
- Overused or inappropriate app blocking
Depending on the activity report, if you think your kids are overusing the Facetune app, you can simply block it with the app blocking feature of the FamiSafe app. With the advanced app blocking feature, you can even receive an alert if your kid is downloading and deleting an app.
Conclusion
From the fun aspect, Facetune is a decent app, but make sure; your kids are not using it due to personal insecurities. For little kids, block the app, and for kids above 13, ensure they are not spending too much time on it. Adding to it, you should educate kids about absolute beauty standards and inner beauty from a very young age. You can also take the help of a parental control app to limit the time being spent online.