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3. For Parents: Dealing With Pro-Eating Disorder Website
Adapted from an article from www.EDsurvivalguide.com

In the Sept. 8, 2002 issue of the New York Times Magazine, Mim Udovitch wrote a riveting article entitled, "A Secret Society of Starving". She tracked the lives of a few brave young women who idealized disordered eating. These women were willing to share their stories about the collective pursuit of thinness with like-minded peers introduced to each other via pro-eating disorder websites. Pro-Ana (pro-anorexia) and pro-Mia (pro-bulimia) websites draw young women (and some young men), usually ages 13-30, together into a cyber-community. Online, people exchange information using message boards, blogs, instant messaging and shared email addresses. Thus, individuals from many geographic locations can communicate with the common goal of pursuing thinness. It goes without saying that if your child is in treatment or recovery, she or he is dangerously vulnerable to finding and interacting with these websites.

Despite public outcry from advocacy groups, these websites continue to flourish on the internet. They attract young people trying to find support and justification for disordered eating.

Documented evidence of the negative impact of pro-eating disorder websites on eating-disordered individuals is still lacking. However, more information about the content of these sites and their intent is emerging. A recent review of pro-anorexia websites by Norris et al. (2006) identified pro-Ana websites most frequently identified by three popular search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. The identified sites were most typically hosted by free home page providers. Webmasters were mostly female, sometimes referred to as 'web mistresses'. Websites were often created by adolescents who struggled with their own eating and other psychiatric problems. Over half of the websites posted required warnings and/or disclaimers before viewing content, with some also asking non-eating disordered people to leave the site, with some also making the unenforceable request that persons under the age of 18 not enter the site without parental permission.

Two-thirds of the websites posted ways for avoiding calories and "tips and tricks" for facilitating and hiding weight loss. A number of the websites offer "Ana accessories", most commonly a red bracelet called the "Ana bracelet". Themes on these websites included religious metaphors and 'thinspiration' messages promoting control and starvation through sacrificial dedication to weight loss. Deceit was sanctioned, when necessary, to prevent discovery of the eating disorder. Group solidarity in the face of a world that sees eating disorders as dangerous is encouraged on these sites.

Parents and caretakers need to do their best to monitor access to pro-eating disorder websites; however, they need to do so with empathy and understanding. Many young people go to these sites for their own kind of empathy and support. Tired of standard preaching about the negative consequences of disordered eating, they turn to pro-eating disorder sites for access to like-minded people who seem to understand them.

What Can Parents and Caretakers Do?

1. Advocate for the use of websites disclaimers and warnings about content. Over half of the sites reviewed by Norris and colleagues had no disclaimers at all.

2. Advocate for enforcement by web providers of their own outlined terms for use of their websites. Unregulated information on the internet can exacerbate disordered eating and exercise.

3. Go to these websites yourself. Type 'pro-Ana' into the search box of an engine such as Google, and you will find hundreds of links to pro-Ana sites. Caretakers need to understand these websites, what they contain, and why they are sought out.

4. Have your young or older adult child show you any sites he or she is willing to admit to viewing. Ask if your child is willing to share reasons for viewing these sites.

5. Do your best to block websites that encourage or promote disordered eating or exercise, including those that have 'thinspiration' pictures of emaciated young people or stimulating stories of self-injury.

6. Consider placing the computer used by your child in a common living area of the house. While you need not eavesdrop on private, on-line conversations, doing this creates an awareness that any website visited is done so in full view of family members who may pass by at any time.

7. As with drugs, sex and pornography, sit down with your child and talk about pro-eating disorder websites. This includes talking with non-eating disordered children in the home. Since the vast majority of young women and many young men are unhappy and insecure about their body image, almost all young people are at risk of exposure to these sites.

8. Be clear with your child that you do not want them visiting pro-eating disorder websites, and why they are dangerous.

9. Encourage your child with an eating disorder to seek positive forms of support and understanding for their suffering, e.g., an empathetic therapist, an organized eating disorder support group, or even online help sites (Sheena's Place has recently put together an article on these resources for the Flushed Zine – Please see the Fall 2006 issues under Literary Non-Fiction).