Imagine this. A young girl, fourteen years old, scrolling on tiktok late at night. Video after video, post after post, a creator appears. She’s confident, glowing, and importantly, shes funny; relatable. Holding up a small jelly packet she says, “this is how I avoid bloating after every meal.” It’s sixty dollars. There’s no doctor’s note or nutritionalist’s approval. Just a smile, a soft filter and two million views. She buys it. She might be naive but you can’t blame the kid. Nothing in that thirty second video was ever going to tell her this ‘health expert’ had zero medical training. Because that’s not what gets views. That’s not what brings the money in. This is not an isolated clip. The next scroll? Detox teas. Two scrolls after that? “My 500 calorie dinner!” Weight loss programs,medicines, so called clean eating. A multi billion dollar industry of “wellness” content, built on personal anecdotes dressed as expert advice, and right now, none of it is regulated. What’s even worse? They’re all targeted towards teenagers and young adults. As a student who scrolls the same feeds, I am asking this committee to do something about it. Social media platforms must be required to regulate the health content posted by influencers, to protect young people, like myself and my peers, from misleading and harmful advice. Add a break in this paragraph later for easier reading Copy and paste into another doc to make your cue cards. Add space to number them The influencers promoting these trends online ultimately have no nutritional or medical training. Yet, they present themselves online everyday, spreading personal anecdotes as if they were universal, scientific facts. Would you ever take medical advice from a random stranger on the street? Absolutely not. But that is exactly what is happening every time a new health trend arises online, led by creators whose only qualification is a high follower count. In fact, a study from the University of Sydney found that a staggering 85% of these influencers’ health posts completely failed to mention the downsides and risks of the products they were promoting. Paired with the fact that the majority are paid sponsorship content, with affiliate links or discount codes, the ‘health content’ being posted online is not only misleading, but completely biased for the creator;s own financial gain. Compared to an actual dietitian, strictly bound by professional codes of conduct, years of study and legal accountability, the gap becomes undeniable. As researcher Jordan Guiao long pointed out, it is illegal to be giving out unlicensed medical advice, yet social media platforms allow these influencers to spread misinformation daily without any shred of scientific research or evidence to back it up. This doesn’t just pose a direct risk to the health of younger viewers, but also actively dismantles the trust the public has to actual, qualified healthcare professionals. As I mentioned, this isn’t just being posted at random, this content is specifically targeted towards teenagers and young adults, this is for a vce oral rpesentation please help me write second argument about how it negatively affects youth