The video platform claims that repeated exposure to certain types of videos could damage teens’ self-esteem and body image.
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European teenagers may notice a change in recommendations YouTubeafter the video platform said it will stop directing them to certain types of health and exercise videos, particularly those that “idealize” certain body types.
YouTube – which is among the most popular apps among teenagers – recommends videos similar to those the viewer has previously watched.
This means that people can fall into a vicious cycleending up watching many similar videos one after the other.
YouTube first introduced these restrictions in the U.S. last year, and is now expanding them to Europe and around the world, based on guidance from its Youth and Families Advisory Board.
The new rule is an attempt to prevent adolescents from forming “negative beliefs about themselves”said Garth Graham, head of YouTube Health, and James Beser, director of product management for YouTube Youth, in a statement.
What does all this mean and what kind of content will now be restricted?
What are the videos that YouTube will limit for teens?
YouTube said it will now limit repeated recommendations of videos that:
They idealize particular fitness levels or weight groups
compare and idealize certain physical characteristics
They are socially aggressive, that is, they show intimidation or fighting.
These types of content “may be harmless as a single video, but could be problematic for some adolescents if seen repeatedly“, Graham and Beser said.
This is because people tend to compare themselves to others they see online, to internalize an idea of thinness or fitness as the ideal body type and engaging in self-objectification.
This does not mean that everyone is affected equally.
Women and girls, people who are overweight, and those who already have a poor body image tend to be more affected, while people who feel good about their bodies and have high social media literacy are less affected – a dynamic that researchers call a “self-perpetuating cycle of risk“.
In the meantime, one 2021 study found that fitness YouTubers — who have been dubbed the “Fitspiration” community — promote unhealthy behaviors, with viewers reinforcing these practices in the comments.
With the new policy, YouTube can also redirect people to emergency telephone lines when they search suicide related contentself-harm and eating disorders.
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The company also said it worked with organizations in Germany and France to deliver the update.
What are regulators doing to address the problem?
YouTube and other social media sites have been under fire for their effect on mental health and on the well-being of young people and some governments have threatened to take action.
In the UK, for example, communications regulator Ofcom ordered tech companies in May to take steps to prevent their algorithms from “recommending harmful content to children”including content on self-harm and eating disorders.
Even the Digital Services Regulation of the European Union, adopted in 2022, calls on tech giants to limit children’s access to content that could harm their “health, physical, mental and moral development”.
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