UNESCO: Social media to harm young girls. The United Nations Cultural and Educational Organization (UNESCO) explained the negative and harmful effects of social media on young girls in its 2024 Gender Report.
The UNESCO report emphasizes that while digital technologies improve teaching and learning, they also increase existing social inequalities, violate users’ privacy, and cause many negative effects, such as making mistakes in career choices during the development of young people.
The comprehensive report draws attention to the fact that young girls, especially adolescents, are at much more risk on the internet, especially on social media platforms, compared to young men.
The UNESCO report states that algorithm-driven, visual-based content, especially on social media, can lead young girls to unhealthy behaviors, including sexuality.
The report emphasized that social media causes harmful effects on young girls’ self-confidence and body image, which in turn causes negative effects on their mental health, including their academic success.
“Unrealistic images on social media make young people depressed”
According to the findings included in the report, social media provides young girls with access to a range of inappropriate video material that is sexually explicit, promotes unhealthy and unrealistic body standards, and negatively affects their mental health.
Adolescent girls who access inappropriate images and content are twice as likely to feel lonely and experience eating disorders than boys.
Anna Daddio, one of the team that produced the report, said that while the report highlighted the progress made in reversing discrimination against girls over the past two decades, it also highlighted the negative impact of technology on young girls’ educational opportunities.
Commenting on the report to BM News, Daddio emphasizes that different types of harassment against girls on social media are much more common than boys.
Daddio says there is growing evidence that social media causes mental health problems and eating disorders, and affects girls’ academic achievement, especially by keeping them away from education.
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