Should The Government Debate Banning Websites Which Give Advice to Anorexia Sufferers known as Pro Ana sites?

[TOMAGCRO]

epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/37141

Victoria Embleton has started an e petition to try and ban pro anorexic websites. Please take a look at the web page and If you think pro ana sites should be banned (the are in France) sign the petition.

As of today it has 100 signatures. It needs 100 000. It has mine.

Can you please explain exactly what will be meant by 'ban'?

If it means 'cannot be set up in England/Wales', is it gong to make any difference? And if you mean beyond that, how can it be achieved?

The French Government have already banned them. If the UK government outlaw them and make them illegal it would be a brave Internet provider that published them. You have to start somewhere.

Isn't it a good idea to protect vulnerable young people?

I thought the French government tried to ban them in 2008 but the law failed to pass the Senate as it was felt that education was a better approach to the problem. If I'm wrong about that please let me know.

Yes, pro-ana sites are a worry. But I don't think stopping them being setup in the UK is either the right approach or a realistic means of dealing with a global issue. Most of the biggest pro-ana sites are based in the US and their free speech laws are quite strong.

There are sites that glorify drug use. Should they also be banned? What about those that promote drinking? Or extreme sports? Or any of a billion different activities that are bad for people?

I'm not trying to minimise the risks that eating disorders carry with them but, as has been seen over and over again with other obsessive/compulsive issues such as addictions, you can't legislate them away. Education works much more effectively.

It would be pretty pointless tbh.

Most Pro-Ed sites you need to search for specific wording to find them, the rest are normally closed pretty quickly anyway.

And if access was blocked to them like the recent block to Pirate Bay then it would still be just as easy to get on them by using a proxy server.