'iPhone 6 Knees' Is The Latest Body-Shaming Challenge On Social Media

'A healthy body can not be compared to an everyday object.'

Just when we thought we'd seen all the world had to offer when it came to ridiculous body-shaming trends, some genius came up with the 'iPhone 6 Knees' challenge.

Women have been taking part in the challenge on Chinese social media site Weibo by posting a photo of their knees with an iPhone 6 against them.

The idea is to see if their knees are slim enough to be covered by the phone.

Body image campaigners have called the challenge "dangerous" and have raised concerns about the impact such social media trends have on vulnerable young women.

weibo

Commenting on the trend, Rivkie Baum, editor of plus size magazine SLiNK, told The Huffington Post UK: "When I first saw this I assumed it had to be an April Fool's.

"This sudden burst of body-shaming trends is utterly horrendous and once again it seems our over use and abuse of social media is right at the heart of this.

"A healthy body cannot be compared to an everyday object and I think a ‘body challenge’ like this just shows how little young women are being taught about health over physicality."

Baum has called for more voices to condemn these kinds of "dangerous challenges" so that young girls seeing the images understand that they are not a measurement by which to live their lives.

"There are more and more worrying statistics about the time young people are spending on social media and if this is what they’re looking at then we need to find a way to slam on the brakes now," she added.

The 'iPhone 6 Knees' challenge shot onto our radar just weeks after the 'A4 Challenge' made headlines.

The challenge, which also originated in China but later spread worldwide, encourages women to see if their waists are smaller than an A4 sheet of paper.

A photo posted by Azura Ge (@azu_kirara) on

Commenting on the latter challenge, Rebecca Field, head of communications at eating disorders charity Beat, said the trend could negatively impact vulnerable women.

“While social media cannot be the sole cause of an eating disorder, body image and low self-esteem are key factors in the development of eating disorders, and social and cultural pressures are strong in this area,” she told HuffPost UK.

“We should be celebrating diversity – women come in all shapes and sizes – not made to feel we don’t ‘shape up’ by promoting such images. This is another example of how social media can encourage unhealthy messages."

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