Eating Disorder Crisis Driven by Social Media, Laggard Government

Our country is only now beginning to realise the impact of social media on mental health, national security, and child safety. 

When it comes to the role of social media and eating disorders, we’ve known there is a causal link between the two for years, but every week that link is further cemented.

In 2020, the UK Parliament led an inquiry into body image, which found that those who followed “healthy food” or “fitness” accounts demonstrated significantly higher levels of disordered eating.  

In 2022, the Dove Self Esteem Project found that almost 3 in 5 girls under the age of 18 were unsatisfied with their appearance and weight, with over 50% blaming social media for their body image issues. 

Just last year, the US Surgeon General issued an Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health, which found a “significant relationship between social media use and body image concerns and eating disorders”. 

According to the Butterfly Foundation, 1 in 10 Australians will experience an eating disorder during their lifetime. Over a quarter of those with an eating disorder are under the age of 19.

The most commonly known eating disorder is anorexia nervosa. It has the highest mortality rate of all psychiatric conditions. More people die from an eating disorder each year in Australia than do on our roads. 

And right now, Australia is facing an eating disorder crisis, turbo-charged by social media. It’s not hard to see why. Hourglass figures and “thinspiration” quickly morph into ads for Ozempic and dangerous fad diet.

Those diets and drugs become tips for purging and body-binding, celebrating emaciation. They make no attempt to teach anyone about nutrition, the sole purpose is to drop kilos as fast as possible. 

One study by the University of Melbourne found that those already diagnosed with eating disorders are over 41 times more likely to see an eating disorder-related reel the next time they access TikTok.

People with an unhealthy fixation on food are more likely to seek out that content, but the problem is that now it’s coming to find them. The ‘Day on a Plate’ trend literally explained to women how to starve themselves. It’s akin to having instructions readily available online to help you take your own life. 

Social media algorithms drive cycles of harmful content which are addictive and desensitising. They become distorted mirrors and magnifying glasses, facilitating extremism, and fermenting division.

They entrap young boys into patterns of harmful sexual and violent material. They ensnare young girls into gendered stereotypes and negative body image. And they worsen the social ills facing our increasingly digital generation. 

This is why I joined the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society.

Just last week, I shared one story of a young person who took their own life after unimaginable bullying on- and off-line. But Big Tech representatives equivocated and got defensive. Snapchat and Meta representatives flat-out denied that social media has had a negative impact on Australia’s young people.

What kind of alternate reality are these executives living in? They either have their heads in the sand or they are wilfully ignorant. 

It’s perhaps no surprise then that self-regulation isn’t working. As a Liberal I am always more inclined to stay out of the private sector and let them self-govern. But they have made no attempts to improve the devastating impact of their designs, and it is now clear that Big Tech doesn’t care about child safety, just as Big Porn doesn’t care about keeping kids safe online. They are driven by one ambition: profit.

There have been small steps in the right direction. Meta now requires disclaimers for posts featuring doctored images. Their user controls allow everyday Australians to nominate if material impacts on body image. And thanks to the Coalition, the eSafety Commissioner has the power to investigate and order harmful material to be taken down.

But the Federal Government IS still dragging its feet when it comes to the mental health impacts of social media and emerging technologies.

I want to congratulate News Corp for their efforts to drag social media back onto the Labor Party’s agenda. This Government has acted reluctantly and far too slowly. It has taken me four years to get age verification over the line – and even then, anonymity and age are only part of the problem.

Algorithms – the recommender systems used by digital platforms – are exacerbating the mental health crisis facing young Australians like never before. Government remains very quick to speak but very slow to act.

How many lives will be lost before political leaders act on social media algorithms?

It’s time for the Government to better regulate algorithms, enforce safety-by-design, and restore transparency to the big tech sector after years of running roughshod over Australian society.