Social media may not be sufficiently safe for children and adolescents, the US Surgeon General has concluded.
Up to 95% of teenagers and 40% of children aged 8-12 are engaging with platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, often for several hours a day, and some of the content they are viewing is inappropriate and harmful.
Driving the growing concerns is research that shows teenagers who spend more than three hours a day viewing social media have more than double the risk of poor mental health. Increased body dissatisfaction and disordered eating are also among the risks, particularly for adolescent girls.
Instagram, one of the more popular social networks, has around a billion active users worldwide and if you scroll through #fitspiration or #fitspo on your feed you will be bombarded with images of toned and muscular people promoting exercise.
Since this content is so accessible and prevalent, researchers at the University of South Australia were interested in drilling down into exactly what was being posted by fitness influencers and whether it might be harmful or helpful.
“Fitspiration is incredibly popular, particularly with young women,” says lead researcher Rachel Curtis. “At face value, sharing inspirational photos, videos and quotes about fitness and healthy eating should increase exercise behaviour and wellbeing, yet we’re beginning to see that this might not be the case.”
The researchers conducted an audit of some leading Instagram fitspiration accounts and assessed the content. They picked 100 of the most popular accounts and looked at the most recent 15 posts, says Curtis.
The first question asked was whether the content included much fitness or exercise information. They also assessed the images for their potential to harm mental health or self-esteem.
“We were looking for things like sexualisation, people in suggestive poses and images that were really focusing on how a particular body part looks, perhaps zooming in on the abdominals or buttocks,” says Curtis.
“We looked at nudity and inappropriate clothing. And also at whether any of the images contained extreme body types – very thin or muscular.”
The study concluded nearly two-thirds of influencers published dubious fitness information, with about a quarter presenting hyper-sexualised content, objectification or nudity.
“We were expecting to find some of this type of content but were surprised by its volume. Given that we know viewing these types of images can negatively affect our mood and lead to body dissatisfaction, it is concerning.”
Some of the influencers did share useful content such as workout videos without including any potentially harmful imagery. Those considered credible were more likely to be female, Caucasian and from the US. But only half claimed a qualification relevant to physical activity or health.
“At the moment, anyone can post pretty much anything on Instagram,” says Curtis. “If we are looking for fitness inspiration then it is on us to be mindful and try to choose accounts that are focusing on what our bodies can do rather than on what people look like.”
In the US, eating disorders among teenage girls doubled during the Covid pandemic. A University of Auckland study showed we experienced a similar trend, with an increase in both children and adults seeking treatment for an eating disorder for the first time, mostly anorexia nervosa, during the first national lockdown.
Although many factors are involved, it is worth noting that in the same pandemic period social media use increased for many, particularly females and young people.
The US Surgeon General is now calling for policymakers to strengthen standards and putting pressure on technology companies to be more transparent and better at responding to complaints. Parents, meanwhile, are encouraged to have tech-free zones at home and report problematic content and activity.
“Hopefully, with more of this sort of research coming out,” says Curtis, “people might become more cognisant and start moving away from some of this potentially harmful content.”
