Google-owned YouTube has announced that it will update its approach to eating disorder-related content to create space for community, recovery, and resources while protecting viewers in the coming weeks.
“We`ve long had policies to remove content that glorifies or promotes eating disorders. Moving forward, we`ll be updating our Community Guidelines to also prohibit content about eating disorders that feature imitable behavior, or behaviour that we worked with experts to determine can lead at-risk viewers to imitate,” Youtube said in a blog post.
According to IANS, the policies could include — disordered eating behaviors, such as purging after eating or severely restricting calories, and weight-based bullying in the context of eating disorders.
As part of the establishment of its new policy, the corporation worked closely with NEDA (National Eating Disorder Association) and other organizations to expand its understanding of imitable behavior, its potential expressions in material, and its influence on susceptible viewers.
Furthermore, to ensure proper content viewing, the corporation has imposed ‘age restrictions’ on specific materials regarding disordered eating behaviors in the context of rehabilitation, as well as those featuring EDSA, as they may not be acceptable for all ages.
“Some videos will not be available to viewers under the age of 18 if you’re signed out, or if the video is embedded on another website,” the company added.
Furthermore, YouTube has incorporated eating disorder crisis resource panels under videos, which are now available at the top of search results for eating disorders in the United States, United Kingdom, India, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, France, and Germany.