Butterfy and Zoe Daniel MP Social Media Roundtable, Body Image & Eating Disorders Recommendations

Organisation / Service

Eating Disorder Alliance

Butterfly Foundation, the national charity for eating disorders, in alignment with industry experts and select MPs, calls on the Government to take immediate action to support young people in Australia when it comes to body image and mental health issues exacerbated by social media.

In May 2024, Butterfly Foundation co-hosted a roundtable discussion at Parliament House with Ms Zoe Daniel MP, presenting urgent recommendations to tackle the effects of social media on the body image and mental health of young people in Australia. The recommendations have been proposed by a working group of eating disorder sector experts, individuals with lived experience and representatives from Meta, who convened after the first social media and body image roundtable was held in parliament in September 2023, hosted by Zoe Daniel, MP.

The key recommendations included modifying the Online Safety (Basic Online Safety Expectations) Determination 2022, amending the Online Safety Act 2021 and requiring social media platforms to be transparent about their algorithms.

The recommendations for legislative modification involved social media platforms being required to explicitly give users the opportunity to reset their generated algorithms easily (and on demand), and supporting the Australian public to report to the eSafety Commissioner when they see material that could negatively affect their body image.

For the full set of recommendations, please see here: https://butterfly.org.au/get-involved/campaigns/socialmediaroundtable/

National Strategy Standards and Actions

Prevention

Standard 1:

Action 2.2: All levels of government to ensure that public policy and initiatives related to education, health promotion, food and nutrition, physical activity, weight management, advertising and media do not contribute to eating disorder risk, drawing on eating disorder-safe principles and expert input.

Standard 4:

Action 4.7: Social media platform providers and media organisations to uphold the use of inclusive language and imagery, act to ensure algorithms support the dissemination of content reflecting diverse bodies and identities, enforce bans on appearance-related abuse, harassment and discrimination, provide support and skill development to moderators
and administrators, and employ a diverse workforce.