There are a lot of risks when it comes to adolescents using screens — and a new multinational study shows weight-related bullying may be among them.
The more time adolescents spend on screens and social media, the greater the likelihood that they will be bullied about their weight, according to the study.
The study, published Wednesday in PLOS One, analyzed data from the 2020 International Food Policy Study Youth Survey and involved more than 12,000 adolescents from ages 10 to 17 in Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“Each additional hour of social media use was equivalent to a 13% increase in prevalence of experiencing weight-related bullying,” said lead study author Dr. Kyle Ganson, assistant professor in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto.
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Use of Twitter, now called X, and Twitch were associated with the greatest increase in weight-related bullying, with a 69% and 49% increase, respectively, the study showed.
An X spokesperson said the social media platform’s policies had evolved since the data was first collected. “X has made significant changes to all its policies and enforcement protocols to protect minors, despite having less than 1% of U.S. users aged 13-17 and strictly prohibiting children under 13 from having an account,” said Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, via email.
A spokesperson for Twitch said the platform prioritizes user safety and applies community guidelines to all of its content.
“Harassment has no place on Twitch, or anywhere online,” said a Twitch spokesperson Elizabeth Busby via email. “We actively enforce these rules and have developed a number of tools, like AutoMod, which helps prevent harmful messages from appearing in chat conversations.
“We’ll continue to seek feedback from our community about their experiences on Twitch, including our Safety Advisory Council, Ambassadors, and Guilds. This feedback is invaluable, as we actively review and update our policies to better address evolving harmful behaviors.”
“We also want to underscore that users under the age of 13 are not allowed to use Twitch, and we leverage a range of tools to prevent the creation of these accounts,” Busby added.
The results are not surprising, given the well-established relationship between social media use and problems such as disordered eating and poor body image, said Kendrin Sonneville, associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Sonneville was not involved in the research.
“Weight stigma and bias are common on social media,” Ganson said in an email. “These findings highlight that adolescents are encountering bullying specifically related to weight, which may further increase the risk for the development of poor body image, disordered eating, and depression and anxiety.”