Study: Social Media Causes Children to ‘Dislike Their Own Bodies’

A study about the impacts of social media found that three out of four children as young as 12 “dislike their bodies and are embarrassed by the way they look,” the Guardian reported.

A youth mental health charity called stem4 released the study, which surveyed 1,024 children and young people between the ages of 12-21 years old. The survey found that the the amount of young people between the ages of 18 and 21 who dislike and are embarrassed by their bodies is eight out of ten.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/01/social-media-triggers-children-to-dislike-their-own-bodies-says-study

“The findings of this survey are deeply worrying,” said Dr. Nihara Krause, consultant clinical psychologist, CEO and founder of stem4.

“We need to improve understanding of the potentially compelling impact of social media content, and the reinforcement created through algorithms, on young people’s engagement with apps and their consequent mental health,” Krause continued. 

The study additionally found that nearly half of all children and young people between the ages of 12 to 21 who were surveyed said they have “become withdrawn, started exercising excessively, stopped sociali[z]ing completely or self-harmed because they are regularly bullied or trolled online about their physical appearance,” according to the report.

Roughly 40 percent of participants said they are experiencing mental health distress and one in five reported having body image issues. Fourteen percent said they have engaged in disordered eating patterns such as extreme restrictive eating, binge eating, and purging or vomiting. Out of the participants “in need of support,” only one out of ten were receiving treatment, the report states.

Krause told the publication that young people often resort to social media when searching for “much-needed information and advice,” a behavior which exposed them to a “supposed reality that is distorted and harmful.”

“Their searches online then keep generating triggering content, which compounds the problem,” Krause said. 

Seventy percent of participants said social media makes them feel stressed, depressed, and anxious — but despite this admission, 54 percent of 12 to 14-year-olds, 60 percent of 15 to 17-year-olds, and 71 percent of 18 to 21-year-olds said they continue to use the apps. Overall, 97 percent of children as young as 12 are on social media, according to the report.