Love Island should be made to ensure its contestants’ “honed, buffed young bodies” are down to a healthy lifestyle and not drugs, ministers have been told.
The Government was urged to pressure the smash hit ITV2 reality show as concerns were raised over the use of image and performance-enhancing drugs (IPEDs) in junior and amateur sport.
In response, sport minister Lord Ashton of Hyde said Love Island was not classed as a sport “yet”, but agreed the need to educate young people about the impact of using such substances.
The issue was raised by vice-president of the UK Sports Association Lord Addington.
The Liberal Democrat peer said: “Will the Government put pressure on certain TV programmes like the all-pervading Love Island, where lots of honed, buffed young bodies are shown to the general public, and make sure these are all down to hard work and diet and not drugs?”
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— Love Island (@LoveIsland) July 23, 2018
Prompting laughter, Lord Ashton said: “I don’t think Love Island has been officially classified as a sport yet.”
But he added: “Image and performance-enhancing drugs are a problem.
“One of the things that UK Anti-Doping and the Government and sports governing bodies have to do is educate young people from a very early age in the effects of these drugs, and to explain and inculcate a values-based system so that healthy nutrition, exercise and sleep – healthy training – is the most important thing and not drugs.”