Bay Area bill proposed to restrict anti-aging products for kids under 13 years old-INTERVIEW

now picture this you're walking through Sephora and you see kids running around applying testing products all over their face they're pegged as Sephora kids and the term is now the focus of a new bill that aims to restrict the sale of anti-aging cosmetic products like these to kids under 13 we spoke to a board certified dermatologist Dr Brook Jeffy who's seen the harsh impacts on her young patients I have seen multiple times in my practice uh irritation from using products that are just too harsh for younger sensitive skin types so leading to things like itchy uncomfortable red flaking rashes for example um that sort of reaction will subside when you remove the product and repair the Skin Barrier however we do wonder about the chronic use of some of these maybe they're not leading to the point where there is a rash or Breakout that prompt someone to stop but they're still undergoing this kind of low-level irritation with a product that their skin does not need and this influences how their skin barrier works how so well Dr Jeffy says one of the main issues is how these products are affecting young kids protection from sun exposure so in other words while kids may be using these products to prevent age related changes in reality she says it's doing just the opposite joining me now is assembly member Alex Lee representing San Jose who authored a bill that aims to prevent kids from getting access to these very products assembly member thank you for being with us tonight thanks for having me on this spotlighting our important work in legislation absolutely well we just heard from Dr Jeffy discussing why this is so important can you walk us through the requirements of your bill and how you see it being implemented right so very simply we proposed assembly Bill 2491 which would ban the sale of anti aging cosmetic products to children that are 13 years and younger and as you've heard from an expert just before is that ironically the constant use of these products applied to a very young child's skin could actually result in long-term effects that could possibly consider as aging as more age skin it's actually really interesting is that for adults the risk involved in taking uh these kind of products that have retinol and other acids in them could actually be more beneficial to them to reduce fine lines but in younger folks whose skin is not quite the same as older people who have to worry about wrinkles and Fine Lines could actually have adverse effects and especially um cause more irritation and even at worse reduce that Skin Barrier and have more exposure to Sun radiation too if it's comes prescribed as a dermatologist from adults from doctors that's a very different story and that could be of course provided by the medical providers too do you think social media sites should censor ads that promote these products to to require something like a PSA for young kids well you know undoubtedly social media has a strong effect on the way our brains think about it even as young people or adults I think we're still susceptible to these Trends and movements that occur there but you know speaking as the youngest legislator in the State Assembly I know how how easy it is for young people to want to appear older right it's cool when you're young to want to look to feel older and feel like an adult and then when we get older we want to have as much baby face as possible right we want to reduce those Fine Lines I think it's important that people understand the risk they have when they're getting products like this and so that's why we don't want them to be so readily accessible and reduce this phenomenon of the Sephora kids where we have very young children running around buying these expensive products in the first place and really reducing that at the front I think it's okay to watch these things and and enjoy them on social media but to um have these adverse effects possibly and potential harms come on your skin without knowing the full thing full uh effects is could be quite harmful how do you actually see this bill being enforced do you see there being added guidelines for retail establishments and I just touched on the the social media sites a moment ago what do you envision that plan to look like yeah right now the bill uh specifies simply that the sale is prohibited to those 13 and under right we give a lot of wri at this moment in early stage of legislation give a lot of room for interpretation for the retailers and for folks to interpret how that ban would be you know we're we also modeled after the age of 13 because the California or the children's online privacy protection act Copa was also the 13year age and that was simply a verification box and how the retailers like Sephora or Ulta or a lot of places choose to implement this could be as simple as saying hey this product is not able to be sold to children adults or you know people only 13 or over should be buying it so we really give a lot of interpretation to the uh establishments to to fulfill the uh enforcement of it and what about social media companies Tik Tok Instagram regarding those those PSA guidelines we were talking about a moment ago well I think that's beyond the scope of this bill and how we regulate and have PSAs or Community notes on different things in social media is still something up for debate but really right now in the scope of the bill it's outside that okay would you consider implementing that at one point if uh you know as as the implementation of this follows through well something we certainly have to think about I think about more so in the terms of social media landscape about what is truthfulness right we have a lot of discussion in terms to uh truthfulness of information of news and electoral things that are happening in the world so it falls within a greater umbrella of free speech and how we figure out those kind of caveats um something like that I think is in the big macro issues but something like this we want to be very targeted about the actual application and when the kids uh get very enthusiastic about a lot of beauty products and cosmetic products products that actually have no value no health value to themselves I think the most effective way of doing that is preventing the sale what whatsoever children have more sensitive skin than adults than our epidermis their immune system still developing and they have a faster skin cell turnover um all of this makes their skin more vulnerable to irritants what have you learned about the impacts in Britain yeah so the British dermatologist Association actually does not recommend uh children be using this and and actually there was a large Swedish Pharmacy chain that has actually restricted the sale of uh retinol and these kind of products to children under age under 15 over there as well so this is the the thing with it is um these products for older adults are used for cell turnover so basically think about it like scrubbing off layers of your skin that could be good because it promotes cell Rejuvenation but still of course there's potential harms for older adults they can still have skin irritation we've heard from constituent stories even that people still get a lot of irritation or even allergic reactions to these products but on younger folks who their their skin layer if you just super simplify it is thinner and weaker um that could have a big adverse effect and actually just like Dr Jeffrey is talking about have more exposure to Sun radiation and have more skin irritation in general as well yeah very interesting well assembly member we will continue following this and we thank you for your time tonight absolutely thank you so much Happ

Channel: ABC7 News Bay Area

Views: 2,001

Keywords: abc, abc7news, Alex Lee, anti aging, kids, sephora kids, health

Id: XxQUNULmieI

Length: 7min 24sec (444 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2024