Opinion | There should be age limits on anti-aging skincare

Children should be scared of witches, goblins and ghosts — not their own reflection. 

Have you ever been ID’d while trying to purchase NyQuil? It may be annoying, but NyQuil contains dangerous ingredients for children if they were to get their hands on it. When taken in large doses, NyQuil can negatively impact your health. In order to avoid a variety of harmful situations, there are age-limit restrictions in place to protect everyone involved. 

Just as a product as simple as NyQuil can be dangerous when in the wrong hands, many modern skincare products intended to reduce or reverse aging contain extremely harmful chemicals and ingredients. A child or preteen’s skin barrier is much thinner than that of an adult, so products are formulated differently based on age. Products designed for this type of mature skin can strip children’s barriers, leading to dry, itchy, peeling, irritated and red skin. 

Active ingredients such as retinoids, high-strength alpha hydroxy acids, beta hydroxy acids and even high concentrations of vitamin C are too harsh for children, who are still growing and developing. Retinoids in particular can even increase sun sensitivity, leading to even more damage. 

Children’s skin has enough collagen and elastin that they don’t even need this type of skincare, let alone a complicated skin routine. The exact look and feel that older people strive to get back is what children already have. However, if children continue to beg their parents for whatever skin care product is trending, their skin may be permanently damaged. 

It’s not the children’s fault, either. Influencers are known for promoting products intended for older people to their younger audiences. While influencers may have a brand deal and are just doing their job, the age of their audience is well known, and it is unethical to be marketing these products on the internet with that prior knowledge. 

Think about it — if you’re a kid watching your favorite beauty channel, and a pretty young woman who most definitely has filler tells you that you, too, can look like her if you just purchase this moisturizer, you’d probably fall for it. Promising a child they’ll look 25 by using these few skincare products lures children into the trap of being influenced, despite the actual target market of the product. 

The problem with this issue is that parents are also unaware of the danger these products actually hold. Unless you are researching each and every product for your child, what’s the difference between an eyeshadow palette and a face wash? Certainly, anything your child can find in Sephora is safe, right?

The steps to protecting young children from these deceptively harmful products start with regulation. If NyQuil’s age of purchase can be determined by each individual state, why can’t Glow Recipe’s Blackberry Retinol Blemish Serum? Teenagers should be ID’d when purchasing, and when parents purchase, they should have to sign something stating they’re aware that the ingredients are intended for mature skin. Even if you are purchasing the product for yourself, it is just one extra click of a button — a small price to pay to keep a dangerous product out of the hands of kids. 

Societal beauty standards push this image of “perfect” so far onto women that insecurity and fear start young. Learning what a “blemish” is implies there is something wrong with you if your skin is not “blemish free.” The modern fear of aging has clawed its way all the way down, so actual children think they need to fix their skin. Even in the best case scenarios, children who actually understand what anti-aging products are use them in hopes of preventing signs of aging from occurring. An eight year old should be worrying about when their next playdate with their best friend will be, not what their skin will look like in 20 years. 

We can’t pretend youth is both a commodity and a burden and expect kids not to break over the contradiction. Setting age limits means choosing their childhoods over our insecurities. 

Faith Richardson likes to write about student life, the arts and the media. Email her at fkr2@pitt.edu.