From The Independent.
Urgent action is needed to tackle the soaring number of websites encouraging adolescent girls to starve themselves, doctors say. The proliferation of ‘pro-ana’ and ‘pro-mia’ websites, which promote anorexia and bulimia, is encouraging growing numbers of young women to wage war on their bodies, they say.
The websites support anorexia as a lifestyle choice rather than a medical disorder. They include messages such as, “I am starting a four week fast today. Anyone want to join me?” They contain advice on how to get through the pain of extreme hunger after eating only a yoghurt a day, or how to hide extreme weight loss from parents or doctors. Some use pictures of excessively thin models as ‘thinspiration’ for self starvation.
It is estimated that one million people in the UK suffer from eating disorders, most commonly teenage girls. More than one in ten girls look at pro-eating disorder websites repeatedly, the Royal College of Psychiatrists says. The college has called upon the government to do more to protect vulnerable women. They say the UK council for Child Internet Safety, set up last year, should specifically target pro-eating disorder websites in its monitoring and educational activities.
Professor Ulrike Schmidt, chair of the College’s Eating Disorder Section, said: “This is not a rare problem; it affects a significant number of school children. Studies have shown that girls who looked at these sites had low self esteem, felt bad about their bodies and were miserable. Patients in eating disorder units spent up to twenty hours a week looking at the websites. There is a vulnerable group of women being drawn into this.”
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