Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bungelung Calcottin woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily Os. It's Friday,
Speaker 2: the fifteenth of September. I'm Emma Gillespie. I'm the deputy
Speaker 2: editor at The Daily Os.
Speaker 3: I'm Nicople, I'm the podcast producer, and of course we're
Speaker 3: filling in for Sam and Zara, but.
Speaker 2: Just for today one day only Friday special. This week,
Speaker 2: eating disorder survivors and support advocates met with politicians and
Speaker 2: social media bosses in Federal Parliament. They were there to
Speaker 2: discuss the relationship between social media and eating disorders and
Speaker 2: what needs to change.
Speaker 3: But when it came to the biggest social media players,
Speaker 3: there was one pretty noticeable appain.
Speaker 4: It was quite concerning that TikTok wasn't there, considering they
Speaker 4: have over a billion users now and also are really
Speaker 4: playing a big role in perpetuating disordered eating, buddy image
Speaker 4: issues and eating disordered behaviors as well.
Speaker 2: In today's deep dive, I'm going to speak to Vasha Jajman.
Speaker 2: She's a youth advocate for mental health and she was
Speaker 2: there in Parliament yesterday. But one Nina when not far
Speaker 2: off getting report into the Royal Commission into Disability.
Speaker 3: That's right, over four years after it was established. The
Speaker 3: Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People
Speaker 3: with Disability will conclude today. The commission began in April
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen following widespread reports of severe misconduct against people
Speaker 3: with disability. A final report, including a list of recommendations,
Speaker 3: will be handed to the Governor General in two weeks.
Speaker 2: Free dooaz stations will be given the first chance to
Speaker 2: secure broadcast rights for future Matilda's World Cup matches before
Speaker 2: subscription services. The Federal government announcement Inshaw's freeoware channels like nine,
Speaker 2: seven to ten the abcsbs given the chance to acquire
Speaker 2: broadcast deals before subscription services like streaming platforms can make
Speaker 2: a bid. The government says this will ensure more Australians
Speaker 2: can watch the Tillyes World Cup matches for free in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty seven and into the future.
Speaker 3: US Senator Mitt Romney will retire from politics next year.
Speaker 3: The seventy six year old was the Republican Party's presidential
Speaker 3: nominee for the twenty twelve election, which you lost to
Speaker 3: Barack Obama. Romney said it was time for a new
Speaker 3: generation of leaders.
Speaker 2: On X and the good News, Australian Paralympic swimmer Jack
Speaker 2: Ireland broke his own world record at the Australian Short
Speaker 2: Course Championships. Ireland beat his previous record in the multi
Speaker 2: class S fourteen two hundred meter freestyle by almost a
Speaker 2: whole second in Sydney on Wednesday night.
Speaker 3: Emma, You've got a really interesting chat for us in
Speaker 3: the deep dive today. I'm keen to get into it,
Speaker 3: but before we do, I just want to give a
Speaker 3: heads up that we'll be discussing eating disorders and more
Speaker 3: specifically some of the triggers that exist for eating disorders
Speaker 3: in the social media world. So if you don't fill
Speaker 3: up to listening to that today, this might be one to.
Speaker 2: Mess people with lived experience with eating disorders. Survivors advocates
Speaker 2: met with metabosses at Parliament House in Canbro yesterday, and
Speaker 2: of course Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
Speaker 2: It coincided with some new research from Melbourne UNI which
Speaker 2: found TikTok shows over two hundred percent more appearanced based videos,
Speaker 2: over three hundred percent more videos about dieting, and over
Speaker 2: three thousand percent more videos about eating disorders to people
Speaker 2: with an eating disorder than those without. So to find
Speaker 2: out what happened at that meeting and what's likely to
Speaker 2: happen moving forward, I spoke with Vashi Yajman yesterday. She
Speaker 2: is a youth advocate for mental health and has lived
Speaker 2: experience with an eating disorder. Vasha, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for joining us. You've just been in Parliament for this meeting.
Speaker 2: You've squeezed us into your busy day outside of cafe,
Speaker 2: so thank you so much for making time. First of all,
Speaker 2: how did the meeting go? How are you feeling?
Speaker 5: I'm actually feeling pretty good.
Speaker 4: It was really great to see all these different people
Speaker 4: and especially meatow in the same room as parliamentarians and
Speaker 4: people with lived experience and people who have been doing
Speaker 4: so much work around eating disorders.
Speaker 2: This meeting coincided with new research from the University of
Speaker 2: Melbourne into TikTok, the algorithm which found, you know, broadly
Speaker 2: that people with eating disorders are significantly more likely to
Speaker 2: see appearance related videos, videos about dieting, eating disorder content,
Speaker 2: exercise content. I wanted to ask you, first of all,
Speaker 2: what does that content actually look like?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: So social media has been part of my eating disorder
Speaker 4: journey since I was probably like twelve or like was.
Speaker 4: I really started showing symptimes at fourteen, And it's morphed
Speaker 4: into different ways.
Speaker 5: So when I started out, it was kind of.
Speaker 4: YouTube and people being like, this is what I eat
Speaker 4: in a day, and what I eat in a day
Speaker 4: is are your main culprit because a lot of them
Speaker 4: have recently transformed into what I eat in a day
Speaker 4: in recovery from eating disorder, or what I eat in
Speaker 4: a day when I eat intuitively, or whatever I want.
Speaker 4: But in reality, you're still comparing yourself to these really
Speaker 4: unrealistic standards and it's just morphed into a new light.
Speaker 4: You're being sold the exact same content that is eating
Speaker 4: disorder content of you know, showing photos of people who
Speaker 4: are really struggling or actually pushing the you know, disordered
Speaker 4: eating agenda, but now it's being sold to you as
Speaker 4: the way you should be eating and what health and
Speaker 4: wellness is, what fitness is like, incredible amounts of protein
Speaker 4: in your diet that apparently is the way that you're
Speaker 4: supposed to be eating, exercise routines that are supposed to
Speaker 4: be just part of a normal, healthy lifestyle, when it's
Speaker 4: not actually focusing on the fact that this is a
Speaker 4: mental disorder. That comparison, it's such a big part of it,
Speaker 4: and that's why prevention and care in social media is
Speaker 4: so incredibly important before we get to the point of
Speaker 4: thinking about things like treatment.
Speaker 2: Do you think social media platforms understand their impact in
Speaker 2: this space, just how much of an impact and influence
Speaker 2: they have over the young people on their platforms.
Speaker 4: I think to some extent they might understand their impact,
Speaker 4: but I think a lot of the times, and obviously
Speaker 4: I can't speak directly for them, but it seems like
Speaker 4: it's just another business model and it's whatever works best,
Speaker 4: and if that means capitalizing off of millions of people
Speaker 4: struggling with this big problem, then so be it.
Speaker 5: And that's the really frightening.
Speaker 4: Bit because it's almost that the norm is to sell
Speaker 4: you diet culture content, and it's the responsibility of the
Speaker 4: user to then make decisions not.
Speaker 2: To For people who you know, see stories like these
Speaker 2: studies or hear about, you know, kind of the toxicity
Speaker 2: of culture on social media platforms, and they say to
Speaker 2: people struggling, you know, just switch off, delete your account,
Speaker 2: or block those accounts, or just don't go online, just
Speaker 2: don't participate in that world. How do you respond to
Speaker 2: those kind of comments?
Speaker 4: Okay, well, I'd say think about it like this. So
Speaker 4: let's say you have one hundred percent brain capacity and
Speaker 4: like ninety nine percent of that is taken up by
Speaker 4: your ating disorder or buy body image of shoes.
Speaker 5: You have that one percent left.
Speaker 4: That one percent is not thinking about switching off when
Speaker 4: you're already all consumed by this. And I think a
Speaker 4: large part of me personally thought that what I was
Speaker 4: doing was for my own benefit. So it's really hard
Speaker 4: to distinguish between negative content and positive content, and I
Speaker 4: think that sometimes missed out. I also think social media
Speaker 4: is really important because for like, personally, from my experience
Speaker 4: being a person of color, I didn't have much support
Speaker 4: around me.
Speaker 5: So validating my experience.
Speaker 4: Meant turning to social media to actually look for resources,
Speaker 4: and then when you're being sold content that supposed to
Speaker 4: benefit your recovery but is actually detrimental.
Speaker 5: That's quite terrifying.
Speaker 4: So for first nations, queer, people of color communities, social
Speaker 4: media plays an even bigger role, Le'd say.
Speaker 2: So, armed with all that experience of your own and
Speaker 2: the lived experience of others that you've spoken to and
Speaker 2: worked with, what was the most important goal of heading
Speaker 2: to Parliament to meet with these bosses? What was the
Speaker 2: aim heading into that meeting?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think for me it was just really
Speaker 4: understanding what is being done and also making the point
Speaker 4: that the accessibility functions is saying not interested, not interested,
Speaker 4: not interested in all your diet culture content is very
Speaker 4: mentally trading. I know for myself, going on Instagram and
Speaker 4: then having to go through these like multiple different settings
Speaker 4: to censor all of the diet culture content was a lot,
Speaker 4: and it's something that a lot of people don't know about.
Speaker 4: So I think the main goal was to really figure
Speaker 4: out what's actually being done from these companies and then
Speaker 4: also making the point that more accessibility around this one
Speaker 4: needs to be there.
Speaker 2: And how did they feedback to that? How was their response?
Speaker 2: You know, in terms of this idea of the algorithm.
Speaker 2: Everything we do is sort of so intrinsic to the
Speaker 2: algorithm online and you see one video, the algorithm thinks
Speaker 2: you engage in it, so it serves you another one.
Speaker 2: What was their response to how we even begin to
Speaker 2: tackle that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so they were talking about a lot of the
Speaker 4: work that they are doing in partnership with organizations like
Speaker 4: the Butterfly Foundation should to create resources and educational content,
Speaker 4: which is really great. But then I think also some
Speaker 4: really great points that other people made was the fact
Speaker 4: that a lot of the time the content that we
Speaker 4: receive isn't even because we're engaging with the content itself,
Speaker 4: but purely because it's being sold to us. And then
Speaker 4: saying that you're not interested in all of this content
Speaker 4: and trying to set your algorithm up in the best
Speaker 4: way possible is really difficult.
Speaker 2: How do you think these platforms responded to that feedback?
Speaker 2: Do you think they're open to practical change implementing that
Speaker 2: or did you feel resistance?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: So, coming out of the meeting, there's now going to
Speaker 4: be a working group steered by the Butterfly Foundation and
Speaker 4: then also working with Meta to see what we can
Speaker 4: actually do to make sure that there are more social
Speaker 4: media protocols. So I think what that looks like exactly
Speaker 4: is still being figured out. But having actual solid actions
Speaker 4: coming out of that meeting felt really really good, because
Speaker 4: I think, first of all, we're not really talking about
Speaker 4: eating disorders in parliament ever, and then it's really uncommon
Speaker 4: to actually have social media.
Speaker 5: Giants like Beta part of these conversations.
Speaker 4: But I also think just knowing that these platforms do
Speaker 4: hold such great power and that they should be doing
Speaker 4: more something to keep in mind, and also that social
Speaker 4: media is one part of the bigger picture.
Speaker 5: At the end of the day.
Speaker 4: The amount of funding putting to eating disorders, especially regarding
Speaker 4: like First nations and communities of color, is.
Speaker 5: Really really important to look at.
Speaker 4: And social media is a vital world, but providing funding
Speaker 4: to the greater system such as like healthcare is incredibly important.
Speaker 2: And of course you met with bosses from Meta obviously
Speaker 2: Meta parent company Instagram, Facebook. But the elephant in the room,
Speaker 2: of course is TikTok. You know, the world's fastest growing
Speaker 2: social media platform. All that research from UNI Melbourne that
Speaker 2: we touched on, does that concern you that there wasn't
Speaker 2: a TikTok representative in the room.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was quite concerning that TikTok wasn't there, considering
Speaker 4: they have over a billion users now and also are
Speaker 4: really playing a big role in perpetuating disordered eating buddy
Speaker 4: image issues and eating disorder behaviors as well, and the
Speaker 4: way that they aren't really screening the content and selling
Speaker 4: you content that is supposed to be about health and wellness,
Speaker 4: but it's actually just glorifying eating disorders. So I really
Speaker 4: do think that they should take some ownership and recognize
Speaker 4: that they hold such a great amount of power and
Speaker 4: that they do have the resources and the means.
Speaker 5: To actually do something about this.
Speaker 4: It really shouldn't fall on people who are struggling with
Speaker 4: the mental illness.
Speaker 2: And for people listening who might be struggling either with
Speaker 2: the needing disorder or in recovery from a needing disorder,
Speaker 2: where can they go? What are the resources that you
Speaker 2: want those people to know about.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so if you have a support network around you,
Speaker 4: that's great, turn to that. If not, there's a butterfly
Speaker 4: eating disorder helpline, And I think just knowing in yourself
Speaker 4: that what you're feeling is incredibly valid.
Speaker 5: If there is a counselor you can talk to. I
Speaker 5: would say that really.
Speaker 4: Is the best step, even if it's just at school
Speaker 4: or going to your GP and having that conversation.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. We so appreciate your time, and
Speaker 2: thank you for being so open and vulnerable and sharing
Speaker 2: with us.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me and if you
Speaker 3: do need help, you can call the Butterfly Helpline on
Speaker 3: one eight hundred eedy hope that's one eight hundred three
Speaker 3: three four six seven three, or head to butterfly dot
Speaker 3: org dot au. Thanks so much for joining us on
Speaker 3: the daily ours this week. Sam and Sara will be
Speaker 3: back with you on Monday. Until then, have an excellent weekend.