Online video platform, YouTube, has been accessed of still recommending eating disorder videos to teenage users a year after new rules were introduced to curb harmful online content. According to new research findings, Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) set up a simulated account for a 13-year-old girl viewing unsafe diet and body image content for the first time.
The research found one in 10 videos recommended by YouTube’s Up Next algorithm featured thinspiration, extreme calorie restriction or other harmful material, although the situation had improved over the past two years.
Google, which owns YouTube, said it had a “steadfast” commitment to stopping the spread of harmful content and the videos highlighted in the report had been removed. The findings come after telecoms regulator Ofcom said YouTube and TikTok were still not doing enough to keep young people safe and called for stronger protections.
In July 2025 a key part of the government’s Online Safety Act came into force, meaning sites like YouTube now have a legal duty to protect under 18s from dangerous content including videos that encourage or promote suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.
Sites must also consider how their algorithms – the computer code which recommends new content to users – could be harmful to young people and mitigate any risks. If companies do not do this they can be fined up to 10 percent of their global revenues, which in the case of Google could run into many billions of pounds.
Jazmin Kaur, 22, from Leicester, was diagnosed with anorexia when she was 13 and spent the next six years receiving NHS treatment. “It all started quite innocently. I wanted to get fitter, I wanted to get healthier, so I started going online and took social media very much at face value without understanding the facts,” she said.
Eating disorders have complex causes, and online content alone can never explain why someone develops the condition. Jazmin said some of the material on YouTube and other sites was helpful but “most of the time it made it a lot worse. “Every time I left hospital, I’d have my phone with me and I’d constantly be on it.
