Social media fuelled Indya’s eating disorder, now she’s calling on Meta for return of content moderation tools

Driven by social media trends and a desire to attain the “perfect” body, a teenager warns that a Meta decision will have serious impacts on young people.

An Adelaide teenager says she fears social media giant Meta’s decision to slash its content moderation will harm young people’s health.

Driven by fitness trends on social media, Indya’s desire to obtain the “perfect” body led her to extreme workouts that spiralled into a dangerous eating disorder at just 13.

Wanting to stay fit during the pandemic, she started following viral workouts and was a key factor in her developing anorexia.

“Without even consciously knowing it, you’re seeing all this content and you’re like oh my gosh, I should be eating this, I should be exercising this amount, I should look like this,” the now 19-year-old said.

19-year-old Indya warns Meta's decision to reduce content moderation will negatively impact vulnerable users online. Picture: Supplied

“There was this big craze at the time of Chloe Ting. Her exercise routine, ‘abs in 30 days’ was advertised all over social media and that was all I saw.

“That, especially during Covid, had a huge impact for me because I was like, well all these people are exercising and I’ve got nothing to do, so I better start exercising to keep up.”

She was hospitalised numerous times following her diagnosis in late 2020 with her recovery made harder due to the lack of understanding from medical staff.

“I went into emergency once and the doctor was like well, you don’t look like you have an eating disorder (...) they’re just so unaware of what they say or the implications of how serious it can be,” she said.

It wasn’t until she travelled to Queensland for treatment at Wandi Nerida, Australia’s only specialist residential eating disorder recovery centre, that she truly started to recover.

“Over 50 per cent of their staff had lived the experience.

Before going, I’d never met anyone that had recovered from an eating disorder, so being able to see the hope they had and see them getting on with their life showed me it is possible,” she said.

Unmoderated content relating to diet and exercise on social media can have a significant impact on young people’s mental health. Photo: iStock

Now studying nursing, she is a passionate advocate for better care in South Australia for “the most deadly” mental illness.

“Reaching out for support and accessing care is so important, but it’s challenging if you don’t ‘look sick’ or fit the mould of how society views eating disorders,” she said.

With Meta now cutting back content moderation across their platforms, she warns the changes could have serious consequences, especially for young people, with exercise and diet trends among her biggest concerns.

“It can be quite harmful because (content) isn’t always presented as a pro-eating disorder, but there are always underlying messages, especially for young people” she said.

“Everything you see on social media isn’t real and it’s not reality at all and there’s so many other diverse bodies in the world that you aren’t exposed to.

“It’s a massive concern because thinking back to when I developed my anorexia and all the content that was out there, it’ll also undo all the hard work that has been done trying to limit this content.”

Butterfly Foundation CEO Jim Hungerford said the organisation was “profoundly disappointed” by the “decision to remove critical content moderation tools.”

“Every day, we witness first-hand how exposure to harmful online content can trigger and exacerbate eating disorders and body image issues,” he said.

“There is a great deal of research demonstrating that exposure to appearance-focused content on social media platforms directly impacts young people’s body image and wellbeing.

“Meta’s decision to prioritise unrestricted speech over user safety threatens to undo years of progress in creating healthier online spaces.”

If you or a loved one needs support, reach out to Butterfly Foundation on 1800 ED HOPE (33 4673)

Originally published as Social media fuelled Indya’s eating disorder, now she’s calling on Meta for return of content moderation tools