YouTube has limited eating disorder videos, but there’s more work to do

Two years after it initially studied eating disorder videos on YouTube, the Center For Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has returned with an update. The nonprofit has published a report that tests the volume of eating disorder content within YouTube’s recommendation engine.

In a 2024 study, the CCDH simulated a 13-year-old girl’s YouTube account and found that one out of every three videos recommended to that account contained harmful eating disorder content. CCDH researchers also claimed that YouTube “failed to act” in the majority of cases where harmful videos were flagged.

At the time of the initial study, YouTube was already taking steps to crack down on rule-breaking eating disorder videos and derank those videos in its recommendation engine. Then, by enlisting help from parents, YouTube promised to make its platform safer for vulnerable young users.

The latest CCDH dispatch serves as a progress report. Once again, researchers set up dummy accounts that represented teenage girls. Those accounts were then “seeded” with search terms that might be used by someone who’s looking for eating disorder content.

The good news is that YouTube’s updated policies have had a noticeable impact on its moderation efforts. In the 2026 study, only one out of every nine algorithmic recommendations featured harmful eating disorder content. And for search terms like “ed inspo,” “edtok,” and “ed wieiad” (the second word stands for “what I eat in a day”), YouTube displays crisis resource panels that help teens address disordered eating habits.

The CCDH believes, however, that YouTube still has more work to do. Some videos in categories like “thinsporation” and “extreme calorie restriction” were served to teen accounts, and dozens of harmful videos lacked the necessary crisis resource panels.

“Harmful eating disorder recommendations have fallen significantly on YouTube, showing the platform is capable of making its recommendation systems safer,” said CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed in a statement. “But progress is not the same as success. YouTube is still recommending content that glorifies starvation and eating disorders to children.”

As with other topics studied by the CCDH, eating disorder content is a tricky problem to solve. YouTube is clearly making progress, but the platform must remain active and vigilant to limit harmful recommendations to its most vulnerable users.