Healthline: Harmful Content on Eating Disorders, Self Harm Can Pop Up in Minutes on New Social Media Account, Study Finds
Social media platforms recommends potentially harmful content related to self-harm and eating disorders to some young teenagers within minutes of them creating an account, a new report released Dec. 15 found. In the study, researchers from the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) set up social media accounts posing as 13-year-old users from the United States and several other countries.
Within 2.6 minutes after joining, users were recommended content related to self-harm, the report found. Eating disorder content was recommended within 8 minutes, it showed. Every 39 seconds on average, social media platforms recommended videos about body image and mental health to teens, the report shows.
Researchers also found content on the platform related to eating disorders, with 13.2 billion views. This content included 56 hashtags, which were often designed to evade moderation by the platform. “The results are every parent’s nightmare: young people’s feeds are bombarded with harmful, harrowing content that can have a significant cumulative impact on their understanding of the world around them, and their physical and mental health,” Imran Ahmed, CEO of the CCDH, said in the report.
Some Insights From This Article
Social media content analysis shows that in just minutes of creating a new account, harmful content and advice of eating disorders and self-harm content can appear on the person’s for you page. This gives exposure to potential trigger points to people who are recovering or also may provide peer pressure towards such behavior.
Other harmful content can be prevalent online as well including trolls, excessively divisive comments and other triggers that may not necessarily support healthy behavior. In which case it is important to be mindful of social media consumption daily.
What is your relationship with social media?
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@sunnyWriting4806
My relationship with social media is depended on how I feel that day. Something I try to do is remove myself from the social media at times so that I don't get dependence on it.
@Asher
That's great! Conscious attempts to distance yourself from social media can definitely help build you a habit of avoiding dependence altogether. Sometimes the dependence occurs unconsciously and almost routine so it helps to being able to be aware and distance yourself.
