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Tag: disordered eating

  • Meta is re-training its AI so it won’t discuss self-harm or have romantic conversations with teens

    Meta is re-training its AI and adding new protections to keep teen users from discussing harmful topics with the company’s chatbots. The company says it’s adding new “guardrails as an extra precaution” to prevent teens from discussing self harm, disordered eating and suicide with Meta AI. Meta will also stop teens from accessing user-generated chatbot characters that might engage in inappropriate conversations.

    The changes, which were first reported by TechCrunch, come after numerous reports have called attention to alarming interactions between Meta AI and teens. Earlier this month, Reuters reported on an internal Meta policy document that said the company’s AI chatbots were permitted to have “sensual” conversations with underage users. Meta later said that language was “erroneous and inconsistent with our policies” and had been removed. Yesterday, The Washington Post reported on a study that found Meta AI was able to “coach teen accounts on suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.”

    Meta is now stepping up its internal “guardrails” so those types of interactions should no longer be possible for teens on Instagram and Facebook. “We built protections for teens into our AI products from the start, including designing them to respond safely to prompts about self-harm, suicide, and disordered eating,” Meta spokesperson Stephanie Otway told Engadget in a statement.

    “As our community grows and technology evolves, we’re continually learning about how young people may interact with these tools and strengthening our protections accordingly. As we continue to refine our systems, we’re adding more guardrails as an extra precaution — including training our AIs not to engage with teens on these topics, but to guide them to expert resources, and limiting teen access to a select group of AI characters for now.”

    Notably, the new protections are described as being in place “for now,” as Meta is apparently still working on more permanent measures to address growing concerns around teen safety and its AI. “These updates are already in progress, and we will continue to adapt our approach to help ensure teens have safe, age-appropriate experiences with AI,” Otway said. The new protections will be rolling out over the next few weeks and apply to all teen users using Meta AI in English-speaking countries.

    Meta’s policies have also caught the attention of lawmakers and other officials, with Senator Josh Hawley recently telling the company he planned to launch an investigation over its handling of such interactions. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has also indicated he wants to investigate Meta for allegedly misleading children about mental health claims made by its chatbots.

    Karissa Bell

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  • Former Team USA Skier spreading awareness about eating disorders in sports

    Former Team USA Skier spreading awareness about eating disorders in sports

    DENVER — In her eight years of skiing for Team USA, Alice Merryweather learned a thing or two about going fast.

    “Those ski patrollers at Copper, they are not fans of anyone in a US Ski Team jacket and I have been one of those people for sure,” Merryweather said jokingly.

    But now, she’s sharing her story about slowing down. And that has included getting the care she needed from one of only two centers in the country that specialize in elite athletes who are struggling with eating disorders: the Athlete Edge program at ED Care in Denver.

    “I was here for six weeks during my eating disorder, and it’s the place that I got treatment and got back on track,” she said. “There’s a fine line of being healthy, trying to eat well, trying to train enough, and a point where it becomes really detrimental to your health.”

    She said after opening up about getting treatment, she heard from many other athletes going through the same struggles. She said it can be easy for a young athlete’s drive for perfection and success to turn into something harmful, particularly when observing how society tends to talk about athletes.

    “Especially with the Olympics coming up, families will be sitting around watching the games, and I think one thing parents can do is just avoid talking about the athletes’ bodies. Again, trying to focus on what athletes are doing and how they’re performing,” Merryweather said. “It can start a lot of patterns that we don’t often think of until it’s too late.”

    She’s concerned about the messaging commentators can also have on young athletes watching.

    “No one wants to hear disparaging comments made about their body, or some comparison between them and one of their teammates or one of their competitors, but I think it’s equally as harmful to impressionable spectators that are watching and listening to these broadcasts and hearing it a normalized,” she said.

    She also posed a call to action for coaches and supporters of young athletes: Treat eating disorders and other mental health issues with the same care other physical injuries are given.

    “At all levels of sport, starting with young kids, it would be really valuable to add a component of mental health in general to young athletes education,” Merryweather said.

    Emily Hemendinger, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, explained in a 2023 article that society needs to move away from focusing on appearance as a measure of fitness and health.

    “We live in a culture that really promotes thinness as ‘healthy’ and ‘fitness,” she explained in the article. “That’s really unhelpful and unhealthy for anyone, especially athletes. Also, our culture for athletes really gives this message of ‘no excuses, no off days,’ especially around working out. Taking those two ideas combined, it’s easy to see how we celebrate disordered eating: Excessive exercise or overexertion means someone’s highly disciplined and therefore successful and not weak.”

    Hemendinger said treatment focuses on “stabilizing medically” and “psychoeducation on how to engage in physical activity in a mindful way.”

    Read more on CU Boulder’s Q&A with Hemendinger in their story here.

    If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, the ED Center offers free confidential assessments. Call 844-292-0192 or click here for an email response.

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    Danielle Kreutter

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  • Social Media Linked to Rise in Eating Disorders

    Social Media Linked to Rise in Eating Disorders

    Award-winning actor Zendaya celebrates all body types. Supermodel Bella Hadid openly shares how she has dealt with anorexia and cautions her Instagram followers that “social media is not real.”

    Despite their efforts to serve as role models, celebrities’ photos and videos on social media can trigger people who have negative body images, especially those with eating disorders.

    That content – and social media itself – doesn’t cause eating disorders.

    “Social media can be an empowering tool for connecting and community building,” says Lauren Smolar, vice president for mission and education at the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA).

    But, Smolar says, “It can also be the exact opposite and reinforce unhealthy messages about dieting and appearance.”

    Nearly 29 million people in the U.S. will have an eating disorder at some point in their lives, NEDA estimates. Most of those people – 95% – are between ages 12-25, an age group for which social media is a key part of daily life.

    The problem has grown with increased social media use since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Calls, texts, and chats to the NEDA Helpline rose 58% from March 2020 to October 2021, Smolar says.

    Eating disorders are serious medical conditions that can be life-threatening and are linked to suicide risk. People of all sizes, ages, racial and ethnic groups, and genders can have eating disorders. These conditions can be treated. If you or someone you know is dealing with a harmful relationship to food or body image, get help. You can start with your doctor or a therapist. Or call or text NEDA’s helpline at 800-931-2237.

    ‘Shame and Guilt’

    Research links social media use to eating disorders including:

    • Anorexia nervosa: undereating and often an obsession with thinness. This condition can cause severe health problems and can be fatal.
    • Bulimia nervosa: eating large amounts of food in a short period of time and then trying to counter it in unhealthy ways like purging, diuretics, laxatives, and excessive fasting or exercise
    • Binge-eating disorder: binge eating without purging or other attempts to offset repeatedly eating large amounts of food.

    The relationship between social media use and binge eating shows in a 2022 review of studies. “The more participants use social media, the more likely they are to have increased appetite or intention to eat, which can lead to binge eating,” says researcher Bo Ra Kim of the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Nursing.

    Other unhealthy behaviors include compulsive workouts and so-called cheat meals. “Although cheat meals can be packaged as a reward for me for exercising and dieting hard, losing control during that period can have negative health consequences in many cases,” Kim says.

    Research also shows that seeing idealized (and unrealistic) Instagram images can negatively affect how young women feel about their bodies. Efforts to promote body positivity and spot unrealistic content may help counter that.

    Unhealthy Comparisons

    Some people do whatever it takes to look like people they perceive as looking perfect, regardless of whether it is a realistic or healthy goal.

    “There’s a lot of hero worship,” says Nancy Mramor Kajuth, PhD, a Pittsburgh psychologist and author of Get Reel: Produce Your Own Life. “It generates a false reality to think you need to look that way. You’re so strongly identified with someone on social media that you stop separating yourself from the fact that they’re just people who are paid to look good. That’s their job.”

    People also overlook the fact that in real life, celebrities don’t even look like their visual images without all the makeup, styling, and photo editing, Kajuth says. The idea of what’s “perfect” or what “looks good” is also subjective and varies among different groups. Still, it can be harder to resist social media imagery if you’re vulnerable to an eating disorder or body image issues.

    These influences aren’t new, Kajuth points out. Before social media, the unhealthy gaze came from magazines, TV, movies, and billboards. But social media can bombard you with images and messages that can multiply and follow you around, thanks to algorithms and shared posts. The comparisons can go on and on.

    Growing Use of Social Media

    Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta, are making it easier for people to change their settings to opt out of seeing certain ads or content. For instance, they can set their settings so that if they type in certain words on Instagram, such as “skinny,” they will automatically be taken to self-help content. TikTok has a page devoted to awareness of eating disorders.

    However, the Social Media Victims Law Center says that technology companies haven’t done enough to protect users. The Center has filed 14 eating disorder cases against social media companies.

    NEDA has asked Congress to allocate at least $1 million for the National Institute of Mental Health to research the effects of social media on teenagers and children. NEDA has also called on lawmakers to push technology companies to release their social media research, to hold them more accountable, and to stop them from micro-targeting young people with ads and content.

    “We continue to ask social media companies to evaluate their policies and to continue to do better to make their sites safer for users,” Smolar says.

    A Social Media Checkup and Other Ways to Help

    Experts and researchers encourage health care providers to assess the social media activities of their patients. They also offer these tips for individuals and families to help reduce the impact of social media on mental health:

    • Get help if you think you may have an eating disorder or body image problems, or if your social media use affects how you feel about yourself. Consider cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Kim says. “Mindfulness programs are highly recommended treatments.”
    • Take stock of the message and images that you view and how they make you feel, Smolar says. Make sure that the content is healthy for you.
    • Don’t dwell on numbers related to measuring food or weight. This includes social media posts that include specific weights or body-part measurements, body mass index (BMI) levels, and calorie counts.
    • Spend more face-to-face time with family and friends who are positive, supportive, and healthy for you.
    • If you’re the parent of a teen, be aware of the spaces they are in – not only in real life, but also on social media.
    • Take a timeout from social media. “It loses some of its power when you are not attached to it,” Kajuth says.

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