Guide to keeping yourself safe on social media

It can seem impossible to avoid harmful content on social media, especially if you have an eating disorder.

While it’s the responsibility of social media companies to make sure their platforms are safe for everyone, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself. We’ve created the following guide, explaining how to limit the amount of harmful content you see on each popular social media platform.

TikTok:

Control what you see:

• Tap 'Not interested' to reduce similar content appearing on your feed
• Use keyword filters (Profile > Settings and Privacy > Content preferences > Filter Keywords) to filter out content that you don’t want to see
• Manage the topics that your For You Feed recommends and choose ‘see less’ for anything you may find triggering, such as ‘Food & Drinks’ and ‘Health & Fitness’ (Settings > Content Preferences > Manage topics)
• Enable restricted mode to limit potentially distressing content (Settings > Content Preferences > Restricted Mode)
• Refresh your feed entirely via ‘Refresh For You’ Feed (Settings > Content Preferences)

Set healthy boundaries:

• Set screen time breaks and/or Sleep hours (Settings > Screen time)
• Turn off notifications or set your phone to ‘flight mode’ during the day, to tone down the pressure of constant interaction

Protect your space:

• Block/mute content and accounts
• Review your privacy settings and interactions to check how others can interact with you on TikTok e.g. Only allowing friends to comment on your content (Settings > Support > Privacy checkup)
• Report harmful content if you feel comfortable doing so
• Visit TikTok’s safety centre to learn more

Instagram

In the ‘Settings and activity’ area of Instagram, you can:

• Block/restrict/mute accounts
• Access the Privacy Centre to ensure that your account is as safe as possible
• Set daily time limits and Sleep mode via ‘Time management’
• Use ‘Hidden Words’ to filter out harmful comments and messages
• Use ‘Limit interactions’ to control who can interact with you (i.e., Tags, DMs, comments)
• Restrict the type of ad content you see (Ads > Ad Topics)
• Enable Quiet Mode if you want to pause notifications

In the 'Content Preferences' area, you can:

• Use the ‘Sensitive Content Control’ feature to see less sensitive content
• Reset suggested content to retrain your algorithm
• Choose specific topics and ad content that you’d like to see more or less of.
• Snooze suggested posts for 30 days
• Filter out words, phrases, or hashtags from content

While using the app, you can also:

• Tap the 'Not interested' on content you don’t want to engage with
• Report irresponsible content or profiles if you feel comfortable doing so
• Read more on Instagram’s Help Center

Facebook/Messenger

In the ‘Settings and Privacy’ area of Facebook, you can:

• Manage your screen time and turn on Quiet Mode
• Block/restrict/mute accounts from viewing your content
• Adjust your Ad Preferences to avoid triggering topics (Settings > Ads > Ad Topics)

In the app, you can also:

• Use the 'Not interested' feature – You can click this if you see content you don’t want to engage with. Doing this tells the algorithm to stop showing you similar content
• Unfollow people or pages to reduce unwanted posts, without unfriending
• Report irresponsible content or profiles if you feel comfortable doing so
• Read more in Meta’s Safety Center

Snapchat

You can:

• Remove/block users
• Mute or hide stories/content/notifications
• Report harmful content
• Filter out sensitive content via Content Controls > Restrict Sensitive Content
• Clear the chatbot’s data or remove it via My AI > Chat Settings > Clear from Chat Feed (Snapchat’s AI tool that can suggest content)

Supporting young people (aged 13-17) on social media:

With the young person’s consent, parents and carers can support their loved ones to be safer online. You can:

• Help your loved one set up the safety measures we’ve mentioned. You can have a conversation about taking breaks from social media, turning off notifications at different times of the day or setting their phone to ‘flight mode’
• Receive alerts when your loved one reports content
• View account settings like privacy and interaction preferences
• Show your loved one how to use the ‘Not Interested’ feature or use the restricted mode to have more control over what they see on social media
• Use Family Pairing (available on Instagram and TikTok) or Meta’s Family Centre (available on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger) to link your account to theirs, to help them manage safety settings
• Talk to your loved one about disabling the AI chatbot i.e., on Snapchat
• You can also report irresponsible content if you feel comfortable doing so.

Further reading for parents and carers

• Visit the Meta Family Center for guides, supervision setup, and wellbeing tips
• Explore the Instagram Parents Guide for more safety advice
• Check internet safety organisation Internet Matters for more guidance