This is not a new message from the duo. And indeed in 2022, they addressed the National Press Club with that same edict.

"Casual references to sunburn and tanning are everywhere - normalising behaviour which we know kills," Professor Scolyer said in their National Press Club address.

And that's where the nuance of social media and tanning lies.

It is easy for social media users to criticise the blatant references to tanning with devices such as tanning beds. Take the viral Kim Kardashian video this month. The celebrity was slammed when it was revealed she had a tanning bed in her office, during a video tour. The device, which is banned commercially in Australia, emits intense and damaging levels of UV radiation - up to six times as strong as the midday summer sun.

So it doesn't come as surprising Kardashian's casual promotion of tanning beds was slammed particularly considering her sister Khloe Kardashian was diagnosed with melanoma last year.

But while it is easy for people to jump on board with blatant tanning risks such as this,it does not mean social media is suddenly a safe place that promotes skin safety.

A year ago #sunburnchallenge was trending on TikTok - after influencers shared content showing off overt tan lines and encouraging people to lay in the sun. It continued until the social media giant said they would scrub the hashtag from the platform and instead share links with information from Melanoma Institute Australia.

But the desire for tanned skin on social media still remained.

In October this resulted in tanning nasal spray becoming a viral beauty trend. For those who aren't aware of the product, it's exactly how it sounds. It's a nasal spray containing melanotan II - a synthetic version of the hormone that stimulates the production of melanin pigment and makes the skin appear darker.

Aside from not being approved by regulatory bodies, studies have shown melanotan has the potential to cause melanoma.

On top of that, it's feeding Western society's desire for a tan. Something that in Australia goes hand in hand with our national identity.

As Prof Scolye said on Thursday night: "It's as Aussie as our golden beaches and sweeping plains."

We're a culture that prides itself on getting out into nature, and spending days in the sun and surf, and as a result the bronzed skin has become a marker as to whether we are "Australian" enough.

"[On Friday], thousands of Aussies will be soaking up the sun and working on their tans," Prof Long said on Thursday night.

"Or as we see it, brewing their melanomas.

"When it comes to tanning, we are swimming outside the flags. A tan is skin cells in trauma from overexposure to UV radiation from the sun. There is nothing healthy about a tan. Nothing. Our bronzed Aussie culture is actually killing us."

Australians have been conditioned to think a tan equals a healthy glow - something which the "Slip Slop Slap" campaign has been trying to undo for four decades now.

Since kicking off in 1980 the Slip Slop Slap campaign - which has since become Slip Slop Slap Seek Slide - melanoma rates have declined in younger age groups. But Australia still has the highest rates of melanoma in the world.

On top of this, according to a 2021 report by the Sax Institute to mark the campaign's 40th anniversary, although preference for a tan among teenagers has reduced since 2003, improvement had stalled with 38 per cent still preferring a tan in the summer of 2016-17.

Notably, though, the appointment of Prof Long and Prof Scolyer as Australians of the Year comes at a time when young Australians, in particular teen and tween girls, are as obsessed with skincare as ever. They will flock to shops such as Mecca and Sephora to buy products social media has influenced them to purchase.

The problem is the key products these children, sometimes as young as eight, want - such as Drunk Elephant's O-Bloos Rosi Drops and Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Pink Juice Moisturizer - do not have SPF in them.

The potential here is to use this trend to create habits around SPF.

In recent days, people including Go-To skincare founder Zoe Foster Blake have weighed into the trend, stressing the importance of creating good skincare habits, with products that are suitable for young skin.

"I'm not gonna slag them off because I know that if I was 10 years old, and I had access to social media, I would 100 per cent be doing the same thing," Foster Blake said in a video posted to her Instagram.

"But what I do want to talk about is how important it is that if you have a tween or a teen in your world, you can help them actually get it right."

She stressed good skincare for tweens and teens must include SPF.

"It doesn't have to be an expensive SPF, it just has to be an SPF," she said.