In the future, young people should be recommended fewer videos on YouTube that idealize physical appearance, fitness or body weight.
Together with experts, the video platform has “identified categories of content that may be harmless as a single video, but could be problematic for some young people if viewed repeatedly,” YouTube said.
These included videos that compared physical characteristics and idealized some types over others, as well as content on forms of social aggression such as non-contact fighting and intimidation, in addition to certain fitness levels and body weight. “As a result, we are now restricting repeated recommendations of videos on these topics for young people in Germany and around the world.”
YouTube’s algorithm is designed to keep users on the platform for as long as possible by recommending similar or related content based on past user behavior, taking into account factors such as previously viewed videos, search queries, and interactions such as likes or comments.
This means that users who have watched videos on certain topics once are shown more and more similar content. This can encourage a one-sided perception. Young people are far more susceptible than adults to developing negative beliefs about themselves if they repeatedly see content with supposedly ideal standards that they do not meet, according to YouTube.
