Up Next: Anorexia Algorithm
How YouTube still recommends eating disorder videos to young girls
In February, a landmark trial in Los Angeles found YouTube’s parent company, Google, liable over claims that its addictive platform harmed a young woman, known as KGM. She started using YouTube at six years old and later developed an addiction to social media that contributed to body dysmorphia and mental health issues.
YouTube’s algorithms have the power to shape what people are watching and can seriously harm vulnerable users. CCDH tested the platform’s protection in the US, UK, and EU, and found that it still recommends harmful eating disorders videos to accounts registered as 13-year-old girls.
Our investigation also found that YouTube can reduce these harms. Harmful eating disorder recommendations fell from an average of 1 in 3 videos in 2024 to 1 in 9 in 2026.
The improvements followed new safety obligations under the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) and the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), showing that social media platforms can address harms when lawmakers hold them accountable.
Progress matters. But one harmful recommendation to a child is one too many. YouTube must stop recommending harmful eating disorder content altogether.
About
Content Warning: Eating disorders
Key findings
- We tested YouTube using simulated accounts registered as 13-year-old girls across the US, UK and EU. After viewing an eating disorder video with each account, we analyzed 300 recommendations shown in the “Up Next” feed.
- YouTube still recommends harmful eating disorder content that breach YouTube’s policies, including “thinspiration”, videos documenting extreme calorie restriction, and subliminal weight loss videos.
- However, harmful eating disorder recommendations fell from, on average, 1 in 3 in 2024 to 1 in 9 in 2026 across the three locations.
- The decline followed the introduction of the UK’s Online Safety Act and the EU’s Digital Services Act, showing that platforms can reduce these harms when they are required to do so.
- Nine of the 20 eating disorder search terms used in our previous report now display a crisis resource panel, an informational banner used for sensitive topics. However, none of the harmful videos in our dataset were accompanied by crisis panels.
Behind every recommendation is a real person
Algorithms affect people.
KGM’s experience reflects a wider pattern. Anna Mockel was 14 when she started watching videos about losing weight on YouTube. The more she watched them, the more the algorithms recommended harmful content — until her “Up Next” tab was flooded with videos glorifying skeletal bodies and extreme diets.
If harmful eating disorder content on social media has affected you or someone you know, we’d like to hear your story. Personal experiences help show lawmakers and platforms what’s at stake.
Why this matters
YouTube is one of the most popular platforms among young people all over the world. In the U.S., 9 in 10 teens between 13 and 17 are on YouTube, with 73% using the platform every day, according to the Pew Research Center.
With such extraordinary reach, YouTube’s recommendation algorithms play a powerful role in shaping what teenagers see online. If a teenager comes across eating disorder content, YouTube should steer them towards support, not recommend more harmful videos.
Our findings show this is possible.
Since our 2024 investigation, YouTube has introduced additional safeguards, including limits on sequencing videos promoting idealized body images to younger users. The results show these interventions have reduced harmful recommendations.
But they haven’t eliminated them.
Crisis resource panels are still available in only two European countries, France and Germany. Even where they appear, users can dismiss them with a single click and continue watching.
“Crisis resources that don’t appear on the content most likely to harm a child aren’t a safety net; they’re a gap. Platforms must design recommendation systems that prevent this content from surfacing at all, not rely on warnings a child can dismiss with one click. Regulators must keep the pressure on,” said Christine Peat, Board President of the Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy and Action.
Warnings after exposure are not enough. Children deserve stronger protections before harmful content is recommended.
The work isn’t finished
Our investigation shows YouTube can reduce harmful eating disorder recommendations. Now it needs to finish the job.
No child should be recommended harmful eating disorder content. Not once.
Read the full report, share the findings, and if you’ve been affected by harmful content online, add your voice to the campaign. Together, we can build the evidence and public pressure needed to push platforms to put children’s safety ahead of engagement.
If you or someone you know is affected by eating disorders, you might find the following resources helpful:
US eating disorder support and advice
National Alliance for Eating Disorders: To reach a helpline call +1 (866) 662-1235 from Monday to Friday, 9am-7pm ET. Their directory of practitioners and treatment centers can be found here, which can also be accessed using an app.
UK eating disorder support and advice
BEAT — To reach a helpline use this link to find phone numbers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, 3pm–8pm Monday to Friday.
EU eating disorder support and advice
Bodywhys (Ireland) — To reach a helpline call (01) 2107906. Helpline is available Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings from 10:30am to 12:30pm, and Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday evenings from 7:30pm to 9:30pm
BIÖG – Essstörungen (Germany) — The eating disorders portal of the Federal Institute of Public Health provides information and a telephone counselling line, 0221 892031, available Monday to Thursday 10am–10pm and Friday to Sunday 10am–6pm.
Fédération Française Anorexie Boulimie (France) — The national helpline, Anorexie Boulimie, Info Écoute, can be reached at 09 69 325 900, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 4pm–6pm Paris time, offering confidential support.