To ask for Pro Ana sites to be removed?

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Watched Supersize vs Superskinny tonight and was really shocked at the new craze of pro Ana sites encouraging/giving tips to sufferers of eating disorders? I am an ex sufferer of both myself and even at my worst would not have looked at these sites? One of them even says it's a supportive site and if you aren't a sufferer then you can't enter the site? You can guess what's there if you do look. Surely this should be banned?

Apologies for triple post but since the OP was about removing them. There was a big purge by Google and some of the blogging sites when the pro-ana sites were rife. It worked THOSE sites disappeared and new ones spawned with tighter restrictions on who could enter but it didn't get rid of them. I'm not sure how that could really be achieved.

These are not new, I went on these all through my teenage years and they are actually really quite hard to find a lot of the time as they keep being deleted and moved. Pro Ana/Mia/Ednos websites actually helped me when I was in a really bad place. They might not have been the best influence but at least I knew there were other people on the same position.

Once you find them they are really hard to join too and are normally under really cryptic. There's no point trying to delete them as they will pop back up and the regular users of them will be told where to go for the new site.

Perlona This attention and attempt to 'ban' is only ever focused on anorexics, presumably because they're young females. It's wrong to ban some people from creating sites based on their mental issues and not others. I'd rather live in a free society than one which bans people from talking about themselves to protect the feelings of people like you who don't like what you're hearing/seeing

Agree with this. Are you going to ban anorexia sufferers from talking to each other too? Or all porn from the internet?

I watched the Supersize v Superskinny programme last night and tbh the woman was no different from any French woman you might see at a swimming pool in France - neither was her diet.

Why treat anorexia differently from any other illness? Again, I think its more to do with thinking that young females should be controlled and forced to behave and look a certain way, as opposed to other groups of unhealthy people.

I agree a ban would be ill considered and ineffective as they burrow deeper underground (this has already happened as I said). If people are allowed to discuss depression, bi-polar and any other manner of mental illness (all of which are potentially life-threatening) then why shouldn't people suffering eating disorders be allowed to do the same?

These sites are a symptom not a cause on the other hand it could be argued they provide the tools for those suffering to become more ill at a faster pace (if they use tips/are encouraged to compete).

As the OP I asked if they should be banned or at least governed a bit better to avoid the horrendous sensationalising and competitiveness of eating disorders that SOME of these sites encourage. I repeat again, I did not think that support sites and forums where people can freely discuss the problem should in any way be banned. But there are two completely different approaches here being used.
The lady last night may well have been like women in France - but it is a known fact they are of a slimmer nature, and encourage so. This does not mean they are healthy?!!

Like Ive said, the internet was just getting going when I suffered from eating disorders, so I didnt even know they existed. Supersize vs Superskinny researched them for the programme last night, and presented the facts as a new craze, so thanks to those posters whove advised that this isnt the case.

I agree that banning them therefore would result in underground sites being created/encouraged. I was simply opening the debate for discussion as the more support a sufferer gets with eating disorders the better, thats if they ever realise they are a sufferer.

"Whilst they are certainly not fantastic, they do no cause anorexia. An anorexic would be so without them."

Disagree, I honestly don't believe I'd have had food issues without these sites.

Thinvision was absolutely lethal, I'm sure many girls died from that site. It's been gone for a good 10 years now and nobody even talks about it, but some of us will never forget.

Pro-ana sites taught me lots of tips that helped me hide my weight loss, fake my weight and just generally helped keep me out of hospital until I was nearly on death's door. So, they can be very dangerous. On the other hand, I met one of my best friends on a pro-ana site. We are both recovered, doing well and laugh/cry at those bad times. We have been a great support to one another through our recovery journeys.

They will never be shut down, people get smart and keep going further underground. Many of the sites have obscure names and people make friends; add each other on twitter/FB/email and swap tips on there instead. I was using them 10 years ago and they'd be around for years back then. Many of the large sites have evolved into ED support groups which ban anything pro-ana which is something positive coming out of something negative.

Pinterest is full of them. I complained and got nowhere.