Experts Warn Against Teens Relying on Social Media for Health Advice

For two-thirds of teenagers, health advice comes from an unexpected source: their social media feeds. This digital reality is creating new challenges for young people trying to navigate a flood of medical information that isn’t always credible or beneficial.

“It’s everywhere,” says 16-year-old Roselee. “Trends start every single day and I’m like, ‘OK, wait, should I be following this or following that?’ Personally, I get very paranoid. I feel like I know a lot of other people that do, too.”

Recent research from Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital confirms what many parents might suspect: 63 percent of teenagers now get health advice from social media platforms. The information spans numerous health domains, including nutrition, exercise, mental health, alcohol use, skin health, and hormonal health.

The study revealed a significant gender disparity in exposure to this content. Young women are substantially more likely to encounter health information on social media (70 percent) compared to young men (56 percent).

Angelina, 17, feels specifically targeted by these algorithms. “I don’t seek it, but I still receive a lot of it on my feed, like easy ways to lose weight, exercise routines, diets,” she explains. “I’m not interested in it.”

Other teenagers actively search for health advice online. Zaina, 17, points to the appeal of quick, digestible content: “I feel like people just want to see a quick video explaining things. It’s probably not even backed up. There’s probably no scientific thing proving it because when you go on Google, the search result doesn’t actually agree with it. But people just want quick fixes for their health issues.”

The problem of misinformation in this digital health space is significant. Dr. Brooke Nickel from the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health recently analyzed nearly 1,000 social media posts about five popular but controversial medical tests promoted online.

“As a public health researcher and practitioner, I really believe in wellness,” Dr. Nickel says. “But I don’t think that a lot of what is being discussed in terms of wellness on social media has any evidence to back it.”

Her research was partly inspired by a 2023 Instagram post from Kim Kardashian promoting “life-saving” full-body MRI scans, a procedure not recommended for healthy individuals because the potential harms outweigh benefits.

The analysis revealed concerning patterns: while 87 percent of content mentioned potential benefits of medical tests, only 15 percent disclosed possible harms. Even more troubling, just 6 percent referenced scientific evidence, and approximately 70 percent of content creators had financial interests in what they were promoting.

“I think the misinformation is pretty rife,” Dr. Nickel notes. “It is really concerning when it’s this medical and health advice being given, and most of the time the people lacked the credentials to do so. Doing a lot of these things that are on social media and being talked about, they’re probably just really a waste of time and money, but that’s probably the best-case scenario for a lot of them. At worst, they could potentially be harmful.”

The collective reach of the posts analyzed in Dr. Nickel’s study was estimated at 200 million people — a figure that doesn’t surprise 20-year-old Luke.

“I mean, doctors, they take time to go to see, and the internet is really fast,” he explains. “Doctors are expensive, too.”

His friend Tom, also 20, worries about the persuasive power of influential content creators. “If your favorite content creator’s doing something, you can be influenced very easily. Especially kids because you can’t really blame them for just believing something they hear if it’s an adult or someone in power.”

Tom has observed growing skepticism toward medical professionals online. “In my experience, seeing comments online and stuff, it seems like people are kind of losing trust for doctors or normal health things and just believing what they see online.”

This erosion of trust in healthcare professionals is appearing in academic research as well. Dr. Caroline de Moel-Mandel from La Trobe University analyzed the 100 most popular TikToks about birth control, which collectively generated nearly 5 billion views and 14.6 million likes. She found that one-third of content creators explicitly expressed distrust in medical professionals.

“Sometimes people feel that doctors don’t really listen to their individual concerns,” Dr. de Moel-Mandel explains.

Her research found that only 10 percent of videos were created by medical professionals, with most content coming from general users and influencers. “What was the most worrying, actually, is that most of those content creators explicitly rejected hormonal birth control, such as the pill or hormonal intrauterine devices or implants,” she says.

While natural methods like fertility tracking can be effective under ideal circumstances, Dr. de Moel-Mandel notes that creators rarely discuss the significant limitations of these approaches. “It could lead to making unsafe contraception choices, which then ultimately can lead to unplanned pregnancies, as well as an increase in sexually transmitted diseases, and unfortunately, we already see that happening in Australia in the past few years.”

Both researchers acknowledge there are benefits to health information on social media — building communities, sharing personal stories, reducing stigma, and raising awareness. However, they advocate for greater regulation and encourage critical evaluation of online health content.

“Social media is such an easy, accessible source of information and it provides relatable content, and it can also provide people with support,” Dr. de Moel-Mandel says. “But please don’t believe everything you see on social media.”

Dr. Nickel offers practical advice: “A really good thing to keep in mind is if it sounds too good to be true in terms of your health and medical information online, then it probably is.”

For teenagers like Angelina and Jamie, the solution is straightforward. “As soon as you’re worried about something, go to a professional, no matter what it is,” Angelina advises. “It’s better to be safe than sorry and a lot of times you get to prevent things in that way.”

Jamie adds, “The best thing to do would probably ask your mum or ask someone you can trust.”