Social media is an accepted part of everyday life for many people.
Millions turn to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other platforms to connect with friends, share photos, and follow the latest headlines — all for free.
But in exchange for all of this free content, people agree to share aspects of their personal data, which marketers, publishers, and other groups can leverage and use to target users with ads, sponsored posts, or videos.
While all of the major social media platforms have policies in place to protect users from dangerous content — sponsored or otherwise — no system is perfect, and there’s always potential for abuse.
According to a new report out of the United Kingdom, parents are often being targeted with potentially dangerous and misleading information about vaccines from social media.
As part of the Moving the Needle study, researchers with the Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH) surveyed more than 2,600 parents last May. They found that 2 out of 5 parents with children under the age of 18 said they had “often or sometimes” been exposed to misleading information about vaccines on social media platforms.
That number was even higher for parents with children under 5 years old. Half had been exposed to the negative messages.
The RSPH is an independent health education charity. The group says the report was sponsored by vaccine maker MSD, though when asked, the RSPH defended the findings.
Toby Green, senior policy and research executive for RSPH, told Healthline via email, “There was no input from MSD in the process from start to finish, either in a practical or editorial sense.”
The report also found that 82 percent of 2,000 adults they surveyed said social media platforms should take steps to limit “fake news” regarding vaccines.
Now the charity is calling on platforms in the United Kingdom to police their own sites.
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