YouTube Is Cracking Down On a Controversial Type of Content

Extreme eating disorder videos are increasingly a “no go” on social media

Eating disorders are an emerging issue in the U.S. public health landscape, with the malady impacting at least 9% of the global population. Scientific data also suggests 28.8 million Americans, will experience an eating disorder in their lifetime.

Yet the way eating disorders are presented online has drawn the attention of YouTube, which says it will limit how video casters can treat the issue on the platform.

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In an April 18 blog post, YouTube Head of Health Dr. Garth Graham laid out the company’s policy on eating disorder content going forward.

“In the coming weeks, YouTube will be updating our approach to eating disorder-related content, informed by third-party experts, in a way that we believe creates space for community, recovery, and resources, while continuing to protect viewers,” Graham said.

Noting that YouTube has had policies in place to remove content that “glorifies or promotes” eating disorders, Graham said the company will impose tighter limits on what eating disorder content will be allowed going forward.

“We’ll be updating our Community Guidelines to also prohibit content about eating disorders that feature imitable behavior, or behavior that we worked with experts to determine can lead at-risk viewers to imitate,” Graham noted.

The new policy could include videos that show or describe:

• Disordered eating behaviors, such as purging after eating or severely restricting calories.
• Weight-based bullying in the context of eating disorders

YouTube will also place age-appropriate limits on eating disorder content – even content that details someone’s personal experience with the health issue.

“Content that contains EDSA or discusses disordered eating behaviors in the context of recovery may still not be suitable for all ages, so we’re introducing age restrictions on certain content about eating disorders,” Graham stated. “As a result, some videos will not be available to viewers under 18, if you’re signed out, or if the video is embedded on another website.”

“For example, we may age-restrict videos where a creator details disordered eating behaviors they've engaged in while sharing their recovery journey,” Graham added.

In trying to place guardrails on “copycat” behavior from eating disorder content providers, YouTube is partnering with the National Eating Disorder and other industry organizations that can provide some clarity and standards on eating disorder content.

Those groups say that more graphic depictions of eating disorders are having a negative impact on younger viewers, especially teenage girls who may be seeking instructional help on YouTube to help them cope with their own eating issues.

“We developed this age restriction approach for eating disorder-related videos in consultation with third-party experts to strike the right balance in our continuing efforts to protect younger viewers from content they may be more susceptible to imitating than adults,” Graham said, noting the new restrictions would be eased in during the next few months.