Plastic Surgery kids’ game removed from App Store

A game that saw players practicing plastic surgery on overweight patients has been removed from both the Apple and Google app stores.

The BBC reports that the game, which went under the titles Plastic Surgery for Barbie and simply Plastic Surgery, was rated as suitable for nine year olds and above and involved tasks such as performing liposuction and making incisions with a scalpel.

Players are then able to compare the before and after versions of the characters, with the pre-trimmed avatar referred to as being ‘ugly’.

"That Apple or Google could condone this disgraceful app as a game suitable for children is no less than sickening,” former British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons president Nigel Mercer told the site.

"This app should not be available because it is not ‘socially responsible’. This app blatantly and shamelessly uses child-friendly brand names [such as Barbie] to target young, vulnerable children and exposes them to sexist and disturbing rhetoric as the ‘game’ critiques the body of a cartoon character who does not conform to an unrealistic beauty standard.

Mattel has also pointed out that the app was not officially licensed to use the Barbie brand.