Cale Matthews, BTN Reporter: Do you guys think Australia has a tanning culture?
Person: We do yes, we do, yeah definitely.
Social Media Post (TikTok): I only tan for like two hours then I get bored.
Social Media Post (TikTok): No, I'm going to tan. Burning, burning, burning.
Person: Whenever I have like been out in the sun, I'm like 'oh yeah, I look good'. And like whenever I'm pale I think I look sick.
Person: I think it's somewhat unpopular to wear sun protection.
Person: You don't feel as confident as you do when you have a tan.
Person: The darker the better, yeah like if you can get really dark and have those tan lines, amazing.
Since the 1980s, we've been taught about the dangers of our harsh Aussie sun.
80s Sun Safety Campaign: Slip! Slop! Slap!
But after more than 40 years of slipping, slopping, slapping, are young Australians missing the message?
Person: I feel like it's definitely like something you think, 'oh, that will just be a problem when I'm older'.
Person: When I'm older, yeah.
Person: I feel really sad for me when I was like 17 or 18 and I wouldn't put sunscreen on at the beach. I'm like, 'oh, that's just gonna be with me forever'.
Do you guys know the five forms of sun protection?
Person: Sunscreen and a hat maybe?
Person: Sunscreen.
Person: Slip on sunscreen.
Person: No, slop on sunscreen.
Person: Hat, sunscreen, shade, um.
Person: Mm, yeah I only know slip, slop, slap.
Person: Oh I just thought that was the way you apply sunscreen to be honest.
Person: Seek and um…
Person: Yeah no I can't think of the last one.
Person: Smile! Nah I don't know…
Around two in three Australians will be diagnosed with some form of skin cancer in their life, but recent research from the Department of Health shows that most young Aussies don't think they're at risk, and that's something that experts are worried about.
Professor Richard Scolyer, Co Medical Director Melanoma Institute of Australia: We've got to make it not cool in Australia to have a tan. We've got to stop this glamorisation of tanning so people don't go looking for one.
Professor Georgina Long Co Medical Director Melanoma Institute of Australia: And we know that tanning causes cancer. If your skin goes dark brown under the sun or brown or any sort of darker shade than its normal colour, that's your skin saying to you 'help!'.
Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer are Co Medical Directors at the Melanoma Institute of Australia, and this year's Australians of the Year.
Professor Long: There is nothing healthy about a tan.
They're are also really good at introductions.
Professor Long: Can we do that again? Can we do our little spiel, I'm Professor Richard Scolyer, I'm Professor…that one.
Professor Scolyer: I dunno, what was the difference? You go first. I don't get what you're saying.
Professor Long: Like the blooper, I'm Professor Georgina Long, I'm Professor Richard Scolyer, that one yeah.
Professor Scolyer: We'll be here all afternoon. You ready to rock and roll?
They were recognised for developing a new way of treating a skin cancer called melanoma, which has saved thousands of lives by using a patient's own immune system to tackle the disease. They say they want to use their platform to stop the glamorisation of tanning.
Professor Long: These social media influencers are really important. They're out there in their bikini showing their tan lines, you know, propagating the myth that everyone laps up that this tanning is beautiful, sophisticated.
Social Media Post (TikTok): I'm obsessed with the colour, it's giving bronzed and glowy, but it's not giving orange.
Person: TikTok I think is a big influence at the moment.
Person: Yeah, definitely and like obviously, people like the Kardashians, just people you follow on social media and stuff, everyone has a bit of a tan.
Kim Kardashian: I'm Kim Kardashian, of course I have a tanning bed.
Person: Ah, also the promoting of in social media, oils, creams all that.
Person: Most influencers now, if you don't have a tan, then you're not really being able to sell a product.
Professor Scolyer: I guess we're really on top of other safety messages like wearing a seatbelt when you drive your car and sun safety is just as important but there's this lag between when you damage your skin from the sun to when you get cancer at that later on down the track. So it's a little bit harder getting that message through to people.
Broadly speaking, there are three types of skin cancer. Basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma, which is the most deadly killing more than 1,300 Australians every year. We have the highest rates of melanoma in the world, and it's the most common form of cancer for Australians aged 20 to 39. We are a sunburnt country and not in a good way.
Professor Long: Melanoma cancer is called Australia's national cancer, in fact someone's diagnosed in this country in Australia, our beautiful nation, once every 30 minutes and someone dies from melanoma once every six hours.
Professor Scolyer: The vast majority of cases are caused by If ultraviolet radiation from the sun so the vast majority of melanoma cases and other skin cancers are preventable.
In fact, in Australia it's estimated that 95 percent of melanoma cases are caused by overexposure to the sun, and specifically ultraviolet radiation. Melanomas are formed in cells called melanocytes. When melanocytes are exposed to UV, they release a substance called melanin. Melanin absorbs UV and gives our skin a darker colour. The more we tan, the more stress we put our skin under and that's when mutations and abnormalities in our skin cells can arise and cause cancers. The good news is there are solutions.
Professor Long: Melanoma and skin cancer is preventable, the vast majority of it by being Sun safe.
Professor Scolyer: Avoiding the sun in the middle of the day when the ultraviolet radiation is the strongest. That's number one. Number two is wearing protective clothing, hats, sunglasses, and down the bottom of the list is, is sunscreen.
While Australia does have the highest rates of melanoma in the world, about 90 percent of those cases are curable as long as you detect them early. So I've come here to Uni SA's medical clinic to get my skin checked and see if there's anything I need to keep an eye on.
Professor Marion Eckert, Cancer Nurse UniSA: Hey Cale, how are you?
Good, a bit nervous! But yeah good.
Marion Eckert is a Professor of Cancer Nursing at the University of South Australia. She says it's really important to take note of any major changes on our skin.
Professor Eckert: Yeah, we can have a look at that one. Anything that you may have said that looks different, anything that's potentially raised. So if you had a mole or, or something like that on your skin, which is a little bit more of a formed freckle that's a bit more raised and it's a bit crusty or it's you've knocked it, and it's not healing. These are signs where you need to get those checked. I'll get Jared just to take a photo of that one.
Jared: Can I take a picture of this one?
Yeah.
So luckily, nothing too risky or suspicious on my body. But um, what are we looking for? Do you have any examples of actual melanoma so that, you know, we know what to look for?
Professor Eckert: Oh this is a classic example, not a large spot. Someone's come in, they've come in and they're concerned about it. So you can see it's different colours,
Yeah.
Professor Eckert: And so a lot darker in the middle, unusual shape, and just to highlight how serious this can be. We are talking about millimetres.
Yep. Even the tiniest little specks on our body can be melanoma and something to be concerned about?
Professor Eckert: Yes, yep.
Gotch ya.
Professor Eckert: Yep, not much bigger than a pin head it can be.
Do you guys see many campaigns on social media about SunSmart? Being SunSmart and sun safety?
Person: No, not at all.
Person: I don't believe in our demographic, there's nothing really towards our age.
Person: Not really, I did when I was younger, but I never really see it anymore. I feel like I see more like promotion for like tanning oil and that sort of stuff now.
Professor Long, Professor Scolyer and Professor Eckert all say more needs to be done to make sure the message of sun safety is getting through to the next generation of sunbathing Aussies.
Professor Eckert: It's like smoking, you know, people know it's dangerous, people know it will kill you and so we need to start thinking about it like that.
Is it something that's missing? Is there a message that's not getting through to teenagers because there's no campaigns around it?
Professor Scolyer: Thumbs up from us, you nailed it there Cale. We've got to modernise it and do something to get this message through.
Professor Long: We're hoping in our year of Australians of the Year that we can really push on this point and get advertisers, government, leaders to help us create such an advertising social media campaign that is everlasting and modern and speaks to people now.