YouTube algorithm recommends eating disorder content to teen girls
A study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that YouTube's recommendation algorithm promotes eating disorder content to teenage girls, with one in three recommended videos containing harmful eating disorder content. The platform failed to remove 81 percent of flagged videos with such content, and videos promoting disordered eating received significantly higher view counts than typical YouTube content.", <parameter name="event_date">2024-12
What happened
The Center for Countering Digital Hate studied YouTube's recommendation algorithm by creating a fictional 13-year-old girl account and searching 20 keywords associated with eating disorders. The researchers analyzed 1,000 recommended videos across 100 simulations.
One in three videos recommended in the 'Up Next' panel contained harmful eating disorder content that breached YouTube's policy against promoting or glorifying eating disorders. When CCDH flagged 100 videos with harmful eating disorder content to YouTube, the company failed to remove, age-restrict or label 81 percent of them; only 17 were removed, one was age-restricted, and one had a crisis resource panel added.
Reported impact
The harmful eating disorder videos had average views of 388,000, approximately 60 times higher than the average YouTube video, and contained advertisements from major brands. A teenage girl named Anna Mockel reported that YouTube's recommendations escalated from content featuring skinny girls to videos glorifying skeletal bodies and extreme diets, ultimately contributing to her anorexia diagnosis and two hospitalizations.
Index analysis
YouTube's policy, updated in April 2023, states the company will remove or restrict videos promoting or glorifying eating disorders or containing instructions on how to engage in eating disorders. The study indicates YouTube's algorithm is pushing young girls susceptible to eating disorders toward content that could lead to serious health consequences.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.