Regularly watching weight loss TikToks can be extremely harmful to your mental health. According to a new study.
Spending a lot of time on social media platforms, especially viewing pro-anorexia content, could damage young women’s self-esteem and increase their risk of developing eating disorders, according to a study from Australia’s Charles Sturt University.
“Our study showed that exposure to implicit and explicit pro-anorexia content on TikTok for less than 10 minutes had immediate negative effects on body image status and appearance ideal internalization,” the researchers said of their findings published Wednesday. PLOS One.
“Psychological harm may occur among young female TikTok users even if they are not seeking out explicitly pro-anorexia content and even if their time on TikTok is short,” the researchers added.
This app is It has more than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. Researchers surveyed first-year university students in Australia, but most of the women did not complete the initial survey. Ultimately, 273 women between the ages of 18 and 28 were eligible to participate.
The survey asked participants about their use of TikTok, their body image and attitudes towards beauty standards, and the researchers looked for symptoms of eating disorders and calculated the risk of orthorexia – an unhealthy obsession with ‘pure’ or ‘healthy’ foods.
Half of the participants then watched seven to eight minutes of TikTok content about eating disorders, including videos of young women starving themselves,
She recommends using ice or chewing gum to curb hunger, and promoting workouts and juice cleanses while showing off her toned waist.
Other participants watched neutral content related to nature, cooking, animals, and comedy.
Both groups reported less satisfaction with their bodies after watching the videos, and those exposed to pro-anorexia content felt especially bad about themselves, while also internalizing the belief that being thin is important.
The researchers said that women who used TikTok for more than two hours a day reported more eating disorder behaviors, but that this was not a significant pattern.
To address this issue, the study authors recommend “tighter management and regulation” of TikTok content related to anorexia, eating disorders, and body image.
“Currently, steps are being taken to remove dangerous content, such as blocking searches like #anorexia, but there are various ways users can circumvent these restrictions, calling for further enforcement,” the researchers wrote.
The data for this study was collected in mid-2021, making it nearly three years old. TikTok updates its community guidelines It will crack down on harmful weight loss content in April.
The platform does not allow “promotion or promotion of eating disorders or unsafe weight loss behaviors.”
A TikTok spokesperson told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the company works to ensure its users have a diverse and safe viewing experience, because what one person finds upsetting may be completely fine by another.
Meanwhile, President Biden signed legislation in April giving TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, the option to sell the app by Jan. 19, 2025, or face a full ban, over data security concerns.
TikTok and ByteDance have filed a lawsuit in federal court, with oral arguments scheduled for next month.
