Why cosmetic surgery games aimed at children as young as three need to be cut out

Andrea Mara is the Irish Endangered Bodies representative. She shares her concerns about cosmetic surgery games aimed at children as young as three

Cosmetic surgery games for children – five words you don’t expect to see together. Yet that’s exactly what came up when my nine-year-old searched online for “free games for kids” one afternoon a couple of months ago.

She showed it to me and we had the usual discussion about downloading apps without asking, then I took a closer look. The game is set in a clinic, and players perform cosmetic surgery on animated patients. My patient wanted her nose fixed, which involved marking where the incision should go, using a scalpel to cut into the skin, moving a bone inside the nose, then gluing and stitching up the wound.