Does Instagram harm teenage mental health? Can the platform drive girls into anorexia? Are researchers locked out who want to investigate such questions independently? If you believe Instagram, the answer is no three times.
A few months ago, however, internal research surfaced allegedly showing that Instagram can exacerbate adolescents’ mental health problems. The study situation is unclear, but many media, politicians and parents have long drawn their conclusion: Instagram is toxic.
A current analysis is likely to reinforce these concerns. Reset has investigated Thinstagram – the small but dangerous part of Instagram that glorifies anorexia. The conclusion of the study: Instagram fails to adequately protect particularly vulnerable teenagers and to remove content that belittles or glorifies eating disorders. According to the researchers, the platform’s recommendation logic exacerbates the problem. If you follow a handful of accounts from the “thinfluencer” scene, you will get suggestions for posts and accounts that glorify weight loss. The SZ was able to verify this mechanism with its own test profiles.
Eating disorders mainly affect girls during puberty, but older women, boys and men also develop anorexia or bulimia. The corona pandemic has exacerbated the problem: According to an analysis by the DAK the number of adolescents who are severely underweight has risen by more than a third in the past year, and ten percent more eating disorders are treated as inpatients in hospitals. But therapy doesn’t always help either: between ten and 15 percent of patients die, making anorexia the most dangerous psychiatric illness.
Researchers created a fake profile with pictures of emaciated bodies
“We take the issues of mental health and eating disorders very seriously,” says Alexander Kleist, who represents Instagram’s political interests in German-speaking countries. That’s why you have to work with experts the community guidelines developed. There the company describes which rules apply to users. According to Kleist, Instagram tries on the one hand to remove harmful content and on the other hand to allow people to talk about their personal experiences with eating disorders.
For the analysis, Reset created an anonymous profile on which no faces can be seen, but skinny legs, bony hips and photos on which you can count each rib individually. In the first week, the researchers shared a handful of pictures and followed a few dozen accounts that propagated extremely thin or clearly anorectic ideals of beauty. Although they stopped all activity after six days, the fake account constantly increased in reach and currently has around 900 followers. On the fourth day of the experiment, the first self-proclaimed “Ana-Coach” reported by direct message. These accounts are mostly made up of men who pretend to help the girls lose weight. They ask for photos, supposedly to monitor weight loss progress. They often harass the affected teenagers or threaten sexual violence.
Reset accuses Instagram of two central failings. On the one hand, the platform does not reliably manage to block photos, videos and accounts that violate the platform’s guidelines. “We remove content that glorifies or suggests eating disorders,” writes Instagram in the help area. Certain hashtags and search terms are blocked, but there are dozens of keywords that can be used to find problematic content. In some cases, Instagram displays a notice beforehand and lists offers of help for people who are in psychological distress. In Germany these are the number against grief and the telephone counseling. Sometimes there are also no warnings or precautionary measures.
Instagram also continues to spread dangerous content, according to the researchers
Dealing with such topics is challenging, after all, teenagers who are fighting their way out of anorexia also exchange ideas via Instagram. They give each other strength and show that anorexia is not a one-way street. Deleting blanket photos of emaciated bodies is therefore not a solution. Some of the posts do not move in a gray area, but openly call for hunger and use relevant hashtags and code words. 14-year-old girls document their weight loss. With every pound less and every rib more, the applause grows louder and the admiration in the comments increases. At least in these clear-cut cases, Instagram would have to enforce its own guidelines more consistently.
On the other hand, the researchers criticize that Instagram not only overlooks potentially dangerous content, but also redistributes it. The platform’s algorithms independently suggest photos and videos of young women who are emaciated to the bone. Even with a control profile whose age was given as 14 years for test purposes, the so-called Explore area is teeming with posts that could point the way to anorexia.
Probably not entirely by chance, Instagram announced the day before on Tuesday morning the hearing in the US Congress, a series of measures for the coming year. New functions are intended to give parents more control over their children’s social media consumption and protect young users. Among other things, the standard settings for the accounts of teenagers are to be revised so that they come into contact with potentially problematic content less often.
For Reset, that’s a start at best. “Facebook and Instagram have too often stolen their responsibility with flowery promises,” says Felix Kartte, who heads Reset in Germany. “What we need is laws that not only ensure that child safety measures are in place, but that they actually work.”