YouTube Still Recommends Eating Disorder Videos to Teens Despite New Safety Regulations
More than a year after landmark digital safety regulations took effect, YouTube is still pushing dangerous eating disorder videos to teenage users.
A new investigation by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) revealed that the platform's recommendation algorithm continues to suggest harmful material, including extreme diet plans and "thinspiration" compilations, to simulated accounts representing 13-year-old girls.
While the study highlights a significant drop in how often these dangerous videos appear compared to two years ago, advocates and regulators warn that any exposure to such content poses a severe risk to vulnerable children.
The Experiment: Testing the "Up Next" Feed
To evaluate how well YouTube is protecting its youngest users, researchers set up test profiles for 13-year-old girls in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. The accounts mimicked typical behavior, starting by watching 10 common videos about body image and dieting.
Researchers then analyzed the next 100 videos served up by YouTube's auto-recommendation algorithm.
How YouTube's Recommendations Have Changed
(Harmful eating disorder videos suggested to teen accounts)
2024: 1 in 3 videos recommended (approx. 33%)
2026: 1 in 9 to 1 in 10 videos recommended (approx. 10-11%)
Data Source: CCDH "Up Next: Anorexia Algorithm" Report (2026)
Though the drop from roughly one-in-three recommendations in 2024 to one-in-nine (about 10%) in 2026 shows clear progress, the algorithm still recommended highly toxic material. Among the suggested videos were accounts idealizing extreme skeletal thinness, guides promoting a dangerously low diet of just 170 calories a day, and links promising "the most emaciated skeletal dainty body eva".
Broken Safety Nets and Easy Bypasses
YouTube has introduced protective features, such as "crisis resource panels", which are blue informational boxes pointing to professional help. However, the CCDH report exposed major flaws in how they are implemented.
Out of the 34 clearly harmful eating disorder videos recommended to the test accounts during the study, not a single one displayed a crisis panel. Instead, the warning banners only popped up on five completely non-harmful dietary videos. Additionally, when safety warning pages or pause screens did appear, simulated teen users were able to bypass them with a single click.
This inconsistent system has drawn heavy criticism from health advocates. Dr. Christine Peat, President of the Board of Directors for the Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action, expressed her frustration over the findings:
"This report shows regulation works when enforced — but nearly one in ten simulated child accounts were still shown harmful eating disorder content," said Christine Peat, PhD, President, Board of Directors, Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action. "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.”
Imran Ahmed, CEO of the CCDH, agreed that while the downward trend in harmful recommendations proves regulatory pressure works, the platform is still falling short of keeping kids safe.
“The work of regulators can often feel slow and opaque, but our latest findings suggest that when regulations are enforced, it can tangibly protect users. Harmful eating disorder recommendations have fallen significantly on YouTube, showing the platform is capable of making its recommendation systems safer. But progress is not the same as success. YouTube is still recommending content that glorifies starvation and eating disorders to children. One harmful recommendation reaching a vulnerable child is one too many,” Ahmed said.
Under the UK's Online Safety Act, which came into full force in July 2025, tech giants like YouTube have a legal duty to protect minors from harmful materials, including content promoting self-harm and eating disorders. Tech firms are required to actively re-engineer their recommendation algorithms to mitigate these risks.
Failure to comply carries devastating financial penalties: regulators can fine companies up to 10% of their global annual revenue, which for a giant like YouTube translates to billions of pounds.
In response to the report, a spokesperson for YouTube's parent company, Google, emphasized that user safety is their "top priority" and stated they have removed the specific videos flagged by the CCDH. The platform has also collaborated with healthcare organizations, including the NHS, to develop expert-curated content that surfaces when users search for sensitive topics like depression or eating disorders.
As the battle over digital safety continues, the UK government is moving forward with even more drastic measures, planning to introduce a blanket social media ban for children under the age of 16 by spring 2027.
