A casual scroll can feeSl harmless, yet for many young people in Sarawak, it has become a powerful force shaping their identities.
Between fashion clips and flawless influencers, they measure themselves against standards that feel just out of reach.
Such moments, repeated daily across Sarawak, reflect how deeply social media shapes not only behaviour and style but also self-perception.
With social media engagement in Malaysia reaching new heights, the impact on adolescent mental health is no longer a personal dilemma but a societal challenge that demands a collective response.
The Definition
Body image refers to the personal perception and evaluation of one’s own physical appearance, encompassing thoughts, emotions, and behaviours related to how we look.
While some maintain a positive sense of self, others struggle with dissatisfaction that can escalate into disordered eating, anxiety, depression, or avoidance of social life.
For policymakers, educators, and parents, recognising the difference between ordinary dissatisfaction and clinically significant body image disturbance is essential, as the appropriate responses—from preventive media literacy to specialised clinical care—vary considerably.
How prevalent is social media use and mental-health burden?
Malaysia’s online landscape is booming.
By January 2025, the country recorded more than 25 million social media accounts, equivalent to around 70 per cent of the population, with young people forming the most active user base.
At the same time, evidence from local studies highlights serious mental health concerns among students in higher education, with reported depression rates as high as 31 per cent and anxiety affecting up to 60 per cent.
The contrast underscores how deeply mental health challenges are pressing on young people in the digital age.
Although detailed data for Sarawak’s youth is scarce, findings from earlier local research in Kuching and broader regional studies reveal strong links between media exposure, body image dissatisfaction, and eating issues
This suggests that young people in Sarawak are likely facing similar challenges.
Why Does Social Media Influence Body Image?
On social media, three powerful psychological forces come into play when it comes to body image:
– Upward Social Comparison: By design, algorithms highlight images and videos that are aesthetically appealing and engagement-driven.
The constant exposure to idealised, often edited or filtered bodies fosters comparisons that leave many users feeling inadequate.
– Norm-setting and Digital Subcultures: The rise of viral aesthetics creates narrow ideals of how one should look, including expectations around skin tone, body size, and facial features.
In pursuit of acceptance, young people may adjust their behaviours, from dieting to cosmetic consumption or reliance on risky filters.
‘Feedback Loops: On social media, validation is measured through likes, comments, and follower growth.
Posts that reflect popular beauty trends get the most attention, which only fuels the cycle further.
While these forces play out worldwide, in Sarawak, they are filtered through local contexts: cultural ideals of beauty, family expectations, and a lack of accessible mental health care can all deepen their influence.
Existing Responses in Malaysia
Malaysia has taken initial steps at the regulatory level.
In 2025, platforms with large audiences, especially TikTok, were pressed to tighten age verification and to comply with new licensing requirements designed to protect minors from inappropriate content.
At the same time, national mental health programmes have turned their attention to teenagers, expanding services and bringing support into schools to reduce depression rates.
Across schools and communities, Malaysia has piloted programmes ranging from media literacy sessions to counselling pathways and peer-support groups.
Nonetheless, significant gaps remain in rural outreach, culturally relevant materials, and systematic evaluation of impact; challenges that are particularly evident in East Malaysia.
Practical Interventions for Sarawak
No single intervention will be sufficient.
Addressing the issue calls for a coordinated, layered programme involving platforms, schools, families, and mental health services.
The following are steps that stakeholders in Sarawak can consider.
Strengthen Media and Digital Literacy in School
Education should prepare students to spot edited images, grasp how algorithms influence their feeds, and question appearance-driven content.
To be effective, curriculum modules must be age-appropriate, interactive, and co-designed with teachers and local youth to ensure relevance.
Embedding these lessons across upper primary and secondary education can normalise critical engagement and lessen the risks of negative body comparisons.
Equip educators and local leaders to notice early warning signs
Teachers and community youth workers serve as the first line of recognition for young people in distress.
By giving them short, recognised training on how to identify eating issues, self-harm risks, and ways to refer cases, the time between concern and proper help can be shortened.
To make this work, schools need simple and confidential referral links with district-level mental health teams.
Work with social media companies to create safer online spaces for youth, with protections that are both locally relevant and properly enforced
While regulation such as age-verification requirements marks important progress, effective protection demands local partnership.
Platforms should be required to curb appearance-driven recommendation cycles for young users, clearly flag manipulated images, and ensure rapid escalation of harmful content to local authorities.
Community groups can keep platforms accountable and guide safeguards that reflect Sarawak’s realities.
Expand accessible, youth-friendly mental-health services
Expanding telehealth counselling, strengthening the role of school-based counsellors, and establishing community drop-in centres can reduce access barriers for rural youth.
Interventions should be short-term, clinically proven, and responsive to body-image and related mental-health challenges, while ensuring smooth referral pathways to higher-level care.
Engage parents with practical guidance (not just warnings)
Parent-focused workshops can provide tools for constructive dialogue about social media use.
By offering discussion openers, signals of concern, and evidence-based parenting practices (e.g., co-viewing, setting limits, nurturing offline identities), parents are better equipped to support adolescents without resorting solely to restrictive bans.
Promote alternative beauty narratives through local role models
Collaborations with Sarawakian artists, digital voices, and grassroots leaders can promote inclusive, unedited depictions of local identity.
Additionally, campaigns celebrating traditional dress, body diversity, and multi-ethnic beauty can provide counter-narratives to restrictive online ideals.
Implementation
An effective strategy could begin with carefully designed pilot projects in one urban and one rural setting.
Trial components might include integration of media-literacy modules within school curricula, professional development workshops for teachers, rapid referral pathways to clinical services, and youth-centred social campaigns.
Impact should be assessed through baseline and follow-up data, such as body-image scales, help-seeking rates, and school attendance.
If pilots demonstrate measurable benefit, provincial education and health funds could be mobilised, supported by federal matching grants.
To optimise long-term outcomes, materials should be translated and culturally adapted across Sarawak’s Iban, Bidayuh, Malay, Chinese, and Orang Ulu groups; local counsellors should be trained rather than applying externalised models; and continuous oversight, guided by youth advisory structures, should be embedded to maintain programme responsiveness.
Who Benefits, and Who Should Be Involved?
Youth in Sarawak will be the principal beneficiaries, with anticipated improvements in self-image, reduced vulnerability to disordered eating, and enhanced mental health.
Families will benefit through healthier communication and reduced care burdens, while schools may see improved academic performance as mental-health concerns are addressed.
For the health sector, the preventive focus offers potential long-term savings by avoiding escalation into chronic illness. Achieving these outcomes will require coordination between state Education and Health departments, local authorities, school leaders, youth groups, parents’ associations, and community elders, as well as cooperation from digital platforms operating in Malaysia.
In addition, civil society—especially groups focused on youth mental health and culture—will be key to ensuring programmes remain community-owned and relevant.
Measuring Success and Continuous Improvement
Success should be evaluated using both process and outcome indicators: for example, the number of schools implementing media-literacy modules, utilisation rates of counselling service, shifts in scores on validated body-image and wellbeing measures, and qualitative insights from youth participants.
Continuous improvement is essential, through regular youth focus groups, trialling new campaign ideas on a small scale, and openly sharing results with stakeholders.
Conclusion
Social media is deeply embedded in the daily lives of young people, and simply removing it is neither realistic nor beneficial.
Rather than demonising platforms, the focus should be on reshaping the environment to support positive development: fostering critical media skills, implementing safer platform features for minors, ensuring accessible mental-health services, and amplifying diverse local perspectives on appearance and value.
In Sarawak, tapping into family bonds, community networks, and the state’s mix of identities, alongside youth-led projects and smart policies, can support healthier body image for the next generation.
References:
- Digital 2025: Malaysia
- Self-System and Mental Health Status Among Malaysian Youth Attending Higher Educational Institutions: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study
- Sarawak Plans New Approach to Address Mental Health and Digital Addiction
- Disordered Eating and Body Image Issues and Their Associated Factors Among Adolescents in Urban Secondary Schools in Sarawak, Malaysia
- Social Media, Traditional Media, and Other Body Image Influences and Disordered Eating and Cosmetic Procedures in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong
- Malaysia Pushes TikTok for Age Verification to Protect Minors
- Mental Health of Adolescents