Then Sweden's advertising watchdog ruled that the popular "distracted boyfriend" meme is sexistNow, academics have told British lawmakers that internet memes may be contributing to the UK obesity crisis and doing harm to teenagers on a significant scale. Memes carry dangerous health-related messages and make light of unhealthy eating habits, researchers from Loughborough University wrote in a letter sent to a British parliamentary committee. "A substantial number of individuals on Twitter share health-related Internet memes, with both positive and negative messages," they wrote, noting that many "contain inappropriate material." "It is worrying that Internet meme content... produces a predominate sense of happiness regardless of the underlying tone or image used," they wrote. "If Internet memes carry political, corporate or other agendas without priorities tailored to the needs of 13-16-year-olds then they have the potential to do harm on a large scale," they added.

Source: CNN October 18, 2018 14:15 UTC