When I was a teenager, toxic social media content contributed to the development of an eating disorder – but this doesn’t mean I believe we should raise the age limit for social media access.
Like countless other young people growing up as social media grew up too, I was first exposed to toxic pro-eating disorder content on Tumblr.
It was an unregulated Wild West of images of underweight models, extreme weight loss tips and diet culture content that trapped you into thinking that thin = successful, beautiful, and worthy. Instagram came later to the party, and I fell down the rabbit hole of fitspiration, diet culture and wellness content, quickly becoming obsessed with the gym and being ‘healthy.’
This type of content is insidious, dangerous and when you’re in the depths of an eating disorder, highly addictive. It makes recovery all that much harder.
But I know from research and my own experience that social media is never the sole reason for the development of an eating disorder. Eating disorders are caused by a combination of psychological, biological and sociocultural risk factors.
I already had those psychological and biological risk factors present before I started using social media – my exposure to this content created the ‘perfect storm’ for an eating disorder to develop and thrive.
But I know now it’s possible to have a positive experience on social media – it’s one I’ve been curating for a number of years personally and professionally through my work at Butterfly Foundation, where I’m responsible for managing our social media platforms, creating content and reporting toxic pro-eating disorder content (often unsuccessfully) to platforms.
My positive social media experience occurs through the people Butterfly follows (and myself on my personal accounts) – incredible body positivity, body neutrality and fat acceptance advocates who push back against diet culture and show up every day for the simple right to be valued for more than their appearance. There’s also a community of eating disorder recovery advocates, who I have learnt so much from and help me maintain my recovery. Creating Butterfly’s content that tackles diet culture and weight stigma, provides tips for recovery and encourages help-seeking has helped my own body image, too.
We need young people to have access to these diverse range of voices and experiences, to be offered the opportunity to become advocates themselves, and to be able to seek support in ways that work for them.
Learning how to put boundaries in place is a sustainable way to have a positive experience with social media. I use the “not interested” tool immediately if I see content that sparks body dissatisfaction, and I change my ad settings, so I see less diet culture and weight-focused content.
So, how can we find a balance between protecting young people from toxic content and safely empowering them, many of whom have grown up as digital natives, with their real and online worlds intertwined in multiple ways?
Focusing on a social ban for young people allows social media companies to take an easy out – we need to stop this content from existing in the first place, improve safety regulations for all users, and equip people with the skills, knowledge and resources to use social media in ways that foster body confidence, not dissatisfaction.
Butterfly’s Body Kind Youth Survey revealed 46 per cent of young people aged 12-18 receive information about body image via social media – more than any other way. 8 in 10 young people also believe social media platforms need to do more to help them have a more positive body image.
One way to make a big difference, would be to change the Online Safety Act to compel social media companies to take steps to promptly remove pro-eating disorder content from their platforms, and allow the Australian public to report to the eSafety Commissioner when they see material that could negatively affect their body image,.
We need social media platforms be transparent about their algorithms, and give people the ability to fully reset their algorithms easily and on demand.
But we also need to empower young people and their parents to tackle toxic content head on, to understand that it is not a true reflection of reality, to be able to spot diet culture and weight stigma, and to be able to step away when needed and seek support – and this can happen by educating young people on social media literacy skills, rather than implementing a blanket ban to block people from the many benefits of social media.
Toxic pro-eating disorder and diet culture content does not disappear when you turn 16, and knowing myself at that age and other young people, they will always find ways around a ban. This content also doesn’t just negatively impact young people. Anyone, of any age, can be influenced.
We need a whole system approach that recognises and responds to all the risk and protective factors that influence body image – this could be achieved through a National Body Image Strategy which encompasses online and real-world environments, with actions to address body dissatisfaction and the impact of appearance ideals. And if we ever want to prevent eating disorders and body image concerns, we need to see issues like fatphobia, weight stigma and diet culture tackled offline too. Banning young people from social media is not the answer. Let’s empower them to be safe online and place the onus where it belongs – on social media companies.
For support with eating disorders or body image concerns, call 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673), chat online or email [email protected]. Free support is available 7 days a week, 8am-midnight, Australian Eastern Standard time.