Beauty influencers can be “just as toxic as Andrew Tate”, according to a consultant psychiatrist who spoke during a Scottish Parliament discussion, reports Breaking News.
Speaking at a Festival of Politics session titled *Smartphone Free Childhood?*, Professor Mathew Sadlier, a consultant psychiatrist from Dublin’s Mater Hospital, said that changing how society views young people’s use of smartphones requires a “societal change”.
The discussion was led by Douglas Ross, Conservative MSP for Highlands and Islands and chair of the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee. The event focused on examining how smartphones affect children and adolescents, reports Breaking News.
Prof Sadlier said he is observing a rise in severe eating disorders among young patients and believes social media plays a contributing role.
He said: “I would say it’s not that it’s creating new problems, but the people who have the problems who would’ve fallen into that vulnerability group are becoming more extreme. If you look at whatever percentage of adolescent girls will have eating difficulties, there’s similar problems with adolescent boys, but interestingly, it’s got to do with bodybuilding, overeating, steroid use. The videos around self-harm, there is an ecosystem about that that is very difficult to police,” reports Breaking News.
TheLiberal.ie won’t quit
Please support us with a small donation on PayPal!
He drew a comparison between beauty influencers and controversial internet figure Andrew Tate, saying: “You go into that world with the beauty influencers: I think beauty influencers are just as toxic as Andrew Tate, they’re just toxic to a different population. The problem is one video on how to put on whatever piece of makeup is probably reasonable. But how many people watch one video?” reports Breaking News.
The Online Safety Act, which was introduced earlier this year, outlines a new framework to help safeguard both children and adults in online spaces.
Under the Act, providers are now obligated to implement systems and measures that minimize the risk of their platforms being used for illegal purposes and to remove illegal material when it surfaces, reports Breaking News.
It also includes specific requirements to protect minors. Platforms must restrict children’s access to harmful or age-inappropriate content and offer user-friendly methods for parents and children to report online issues.
Speaking about how things could be improved to address concerns over young people’s phone usage, Prof Sadlier said: “Adolescence and childhood is a transitory phase, with respect to the young people in the audience, you won’t be young for very long, so it’s the next group of young people. Just because the current group of 12-year-olds have a mobile phone doesn’t mean the next group of 12-year-olds have to have a mobile phone,” reports Breaking News.
“We’ve been here before. We’ve been here with cigarettes… I remember when seatbelts were introduced in cars and people thought ‘this is going to be the worst thing, how can I drive with a seatbelt, we’re going to have crashes everywhere because I’m being constrained’. It does take a societal change. It takes changing the paradigm for parents to go, actually you know what, a child trying to learn off a YouTube video is a child in a digital institutionalised environment where they’re learning to speak to YouTube, they’re not learning how to speak to a person,” reports Breaking News.
Andrew Tate has been approached for comment.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
