YouTube still recommending eating disorder videos to teens despite new regulations

New research shows that a year after the UK Online Safety Act took effect, one in 10 algorithm-suggested videos on the platform still featured harmful eating disorder content.

• The Centre for Countering Digital Hate set up a simulated 13-year-old user account and found 10% of YouTube's "Up Next" recommendations were classified as harmful eating disorder material.
• This marks an improvement from 2024, when the same experiment found one in four recommendations were harmful, according to the CCDH.
• Google said it had removed the videos highlighted in the report for violating community guidelines, adding that it prohibits content encouraging eating disorders.
• Ofcom earlier said YouTube and TikTok were not doing enough to protect young people and called for stronger protections under the Online Safety Act.