Women Who Spend Just 8 Minutes on TikTok at Greater Risk for Developing Eating Disorder, Study Suggests

Researchers say there is a “need for more stringent controls and regulations from TikTok”

Less than 10 minutes on TikTok can significantly harm a woman's mental health and increase the risk for developing an eating disorder, a new study suggests.

The study — published August 7 in the science journalPLOS ONE — surveyed 273 women ages 18 to 28 from July 2021 to October 2021 about their TikTok use. Participants were also screened for symptoms of disordered eating, body image, their attitudes toward beauty standards, and risk for orthorexia, which according to the National Eating Disorder Association is "an obsession with proper or ‘healthful’ eating."

Half of the participants were shown “pro-anorexia” TikTok content while the other half were shown neutral TikTok content.

Researchers from Charles Sturt University in Australia found that the participants from both groups reported a decrease in body image satisfaction after viewing the content. However, in just 8 minutes, those who were exposed to the “pro-anorexia” content had worse body image satisfaction and were more likely to internalize ideals of thinness.

“Our study showed that less than 10 minutes of exposure to implicit and explicit pro-anorexia TikTok content had immediate negative consequences for body image states and internalization of appearance ideals, suggesting psychological harm can occur for young female TikTok users even when explicit pro-anorexia content is not sought out and when TikTok use is of a short duration,” study authors said in a release.

Related: TikTok Promotes Harmful Weight-Normative Messaging, New Study Finds

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“Because disordered eating content is so prevalent on TikTok, there was also the possibility that TikTok users in our study would be somewhat inoculated [to] its effect but that certainly was not the case,” Rachel Hogg, study author, told NBC News.

In order to combat these unhealthy, researchers insisted that there is a “need for more stringent controls and regulations from TikTok” on content involving disordered eating and unhealthy actions.

In the platform’s community guidelines, TikTok states that it does “not allow showing or promoting disordered eating and dangerous weight loss behaviors, or facilitating the trade or marketing of weight loss or muscle gain products.

A spokesperson for TikTok also told The Post that the platform is “working to ensure users have a diverse and safe viewing experience, because what’s triggering for one person may be completely fine for another.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, please go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.

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