French MPs have approved a law to ban models that are considered dangerously thin and will impose heavy fines and prison sentences for agents who employ them.
Therefore, models in France will now have to present a medical certificate showing they have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of at least 18, about 55 kg for a height of 1.75 metres before they get hired.
Modelling agents that break the rules face fines and six months in jail.
Another measure in the bill will mean that websites that encourage people to “seek excessive thinness by encouraging eating restrictions for a prolonged period of time, resulting in risk of mortality or damage to health,” will now face up to a year in jail and fines of up to €100,000 ($110,046).
According to health experts, up to an estimated 40,000 people suffer from anorexia in France, 90 percent of them women and girls, and most of these are teenagers.
However France is not the first to legally ban skinny models. A similar legislation was passed in Israel in 2012.