Lockdown Kids: Anorexia spike triggered by iso TikTok use exposed

Expert shares the warning signs to look for as kids as young as eight are presenting with eating disorders sparked by covid lockdowns.

Professor Tracey Wade on the rise of eating disorders in Australia. Picture: Supplied

The “perfect storm” is how an eating disorder expert has described the pandemic in fuelling a rise in “life-threatening” anorexia in young Australian children.

Professor Tracey Wade explained how isolation in lockdown, mixed with an increased use of social media, has led to an exponential spike in anorexia.

The Flinders University academic exclusively told News Corp, as part of its new docu-series Lockdown Kids: How To Break a Generation, that kids as young as eight are now presenting with eating disorders at the country’s emergency departments.

“We know around the world that eating disorders increased,” said Professor Wade. “It increased by about 15% and we know that where that happened the most was with women, with teenagers and it was with anorexia nervosa.

“...and we know that eating disorders are also emerging earlier, so you can have children as young as eight or 10 who are presenting with an eating disorder.”

Watch episode three below:

Hon Mark Butler has pushed for more funding to combat the rise in eating disorders in Australia. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

Professor Wade stated that it will still take 10 years for the current services to catch up and that wait times for treatment were currently sitting at three months.

“And we know that with anorexia nervosa, it just takes three or four months of starvation and then you’re at that medical instability, where particularly for teenagers, it can be fatal. They can die,” she told

In 2023, health minister Hon Mark Butler announced how $70 million would be used to increase services for youth mental ill-health and eating disorders.

In News Corp’s investigation into the long-term impacts of lockdowns on the nation’s children, he explained that the rise in eating disorders was down to a “lack of control” in lockdown.

“There was fear. There was a sense of a loss of control over your life. Decisions about whether you can go to school, whether you could see your friends ... the rise in eating disorders tends to reflect a sense that people don’t have much control over their lives.”

Katya in hospital for treatment for anorexia. Picture: Supplied

Katya spent her 15th birthday in hospital for anorexia nervosa. Picture: Supplied

It comes as 17-year-old student Katya Jaski shared how she almost died after developing anorexia nervosa in lockdown for the latest episode of The Advertiser’s docu-series Lockdown Kids: How To Break a Generation.

The series shines a light on the long-term impacts of placing the nation’s children into lockdown during the pandemic, including a rise in school refusal, mental health problems and youth crime.

In today’s episode, Katya shares how she was just 13 when she turned to TikTok to get healthy in lockdown - but was instead bombarded with videos glamorising weight loss.

“When I looked in the mirror, it was always, this doesn’t look good enough,” she said. “It didn’t matter how thin I was, how sick I looked, all I could see was that I hadn’t changed at all.”

Katya called for an overhaul of services and for it to be speedy, admitting that she had already “lost a few of my friends” in the last few years. “Girls are dying. More needs to be done,” she said.

Originally published as Lockdown Kids: Anorexia spike triggered by iso TikTok use exposed