14 ms·

My daughter at 12 got sucked into Tumblr and developed an eating disorder. She was in this gigantic web of pro-ana tumblrs with crazy diet plans that tell you

• NorthOf33rd 8y ago
  Gosh, that's tough, and I'm hoping she came out the other side stronger. This doesn't seem specific to tumblr though. I can't think of a network that doesn't have the same dark corners and nasty reinforcement. It's the internet.
  • nashashmi 8y ago
    No, it is not the internet! It is a recommendation engine. It is a content network in the business of profit. It is a social entrapment. The internet is a bunch of channels (websites) with subchannels (groups). Sometimes channels that have earned far too much legitimacy overflow into illegitimate corners. And that is a problem. It is like CNN with great content and then having crappy content. How do you start ranking sites then? How do you as a website evaluator start white-listing domains then? I know you are defending free speech while encouraging selective roaming. But that is not an easy act. Some have difficulty while others do not. Some can moderate themselves while others cannot. Restriction + Avoidance is better than Exposure + Ignorance towards these harmful things.
• walrus01 8y ago
  If you think those parts are scary, you should see the "yiff". Basically, furry porn. In the modern era it's considered rude to judge people for their kinky sex life, but some of the illustrations and cartoons in that community are highly unusual. To put it politely.
  • zethraeus 8y ago
    ... how in the world is that scarier than anorexia?
    • deleted 8y ago
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  • ghostly_s 8y ago
    And which group of people are being harmed by this porn that's not to your liking?
  • sanityvampire 8y ago
    Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and say that blogs encouraging preteen girls to develop eating disorders are much scarier than furry porn. Unless... unless it's pro-ana furry porn.
    • throWoway 8y ago
      We just have wholesome vore encouraging healthy eating
  • throWoway 8y ago
    Rude. It's all moved to deviantart and FA now mostly anyway, but there is historical stuff only on tumblr.
• 51lver 8y ago
  Giving people suggestions based on their profiled interests was a nice toy idea, but it's very dangerous in the real world. I worry about that often with my kid online now.
  • behringer 8y ago
    You need to teach critical thinking skills. Not promote censorship. There's a lot of stupid things in the world you can't censor.
    • notyourday 8y ago
      It is much easier to promote censorship than to teach critical thinking. P.S. We do not have anorexia epidemic. We have obesity epidemic.
      • mulmen 8y ago
        Does knowledge of the obesity epidemic help anorexics?
    • deleted 8y ago
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    • DanBC 8y ago
      That's not how mental illness works.
      • behringer 8y ago
        The lack of critical thinking skills is a mental illness.
        • 51lver 8y ago
          Some people are strong willed, some people are followers. Some people are deep thinkers, others are quick wits. Some people plan, and some only live in the moment. Everyone has different tools they use to navigate the world.
• notyourday 8y ago
  > I of course am more mindful of what she looks at, but she was hiding it and I can't monitor everything. And therefore they all should be deplatformed!
• deleted 8y ago
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• dvtrn 8y ago
  My daughter at 12 got sucked into Tumblr and developed an eating disorder. I'm really sorry to hear this, having gone through a similar thing with a now ex-significant other. She too became very active in the segments of tumblr you identified and others (showed me many of them, some seemed like teenage angst in blog form, others were far more...worrisome), developed an eating disorder along with severe anxiety issues, and in my attempts to remain empathetic, supportive but cautionary about the affects those groups had had on her in the last two years of a five year relationship, she abruptly called it quits on our relationship and walked away. Citing the anxiety was too much for a relationship, to this day I can't help but look back and wonder if those groups were partly to blame given how recent her changes were leading up to us parting ways. This wasn't a 12 year old adolescent as it was in your case, she was-up to that point-a healthy, happy 34 year old woman with a great career in the corporate world. Our relationship was healthy, we had a track record of building each other up and improving as people together. If there was something going on under the surface for these groups to infiltrate and exacerbate to the point of us breaking up, she did an amazing job suppressing it. The decline however was swift, immediate and depressing. Each time I'd try to be involved and supportive to help her out, I always got rebuffed and turned away until, well like I said she decided to just walk away from our relationship. To say I'm still stunned would be an understatement. Good luck with your daughter, I hope what you and your family must be going through improves for the better
  • village-idiot 8y ago
    I think a lot of people over-estimate the resilience of the human emotional state, especially their own. Time and time again we see regular functioning adults get sucked into objectively insane or self-harmful communities, be it the above phenomenon or 4chan crap like QAnon.
    • noobermin 8y ago
      How many people follow QAnon or 4chan nonsense? You're over weighting a sheer minority of people who probably have other issues in their lives as for why they chase down conspiracy rabbit holes.
• trhway 8y ago
  >My daughter at 12 i think websites/pages, like for example movies, should have age restriction in their metadata. >love of free speech as we know children arent capable to give an informed consent and thus free speech (the same way like any issue requiring informed consent like freedom of entering into contract for example or submitting to medical procedure) just isnt applicable when it comes to children as they cant make that free informed choice themselves.
  • valar_m 8y ago
    This is patently false.
  • guid_luckWitDat 8y ago
    Did you know that adolescent children are clever enough to lie about their age, AND flout rules enforced by simple button clicks and honor systems?
    • trhway 8y ago
      Browser on locked in system honoring the age metadata would go a long way. It is parental decision whether to give locked or unlocked device to the child.
      • Nasrudith 8y ago
        No offense but that sounds like the most likely effect is promoting tech literacy and sneakiness.
      • guid_luckWitDat 8y ago
        locked in system Is exactly the system they won’t be using on starbucks wi-fi. Laptops are cheaper than console games. Chrome books cost less than a PS4. You aren’t going to solve this by locking down the client side. Not at school. Not in the home. Not even in federal prison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_in_prison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_in_prison You are out of your depth.
  • 8y ago
• draw_down 8y ago
  OK, but a) this is about "adult material" (porn) from what I can see, not other things that one may find disturbing like "thinspo", b) "thinspo" is around in lots of places, not unique to Tumblr
• ASalazarMX 8y ago
  I knew pro-anorexia groups use slang like "your friend Ana" to hide their actions, but had to google "thinspo" and "meanspo". Thinspo (thin inspiration) is positive anorexia reinforcement, like anorexic role model pictures. Meanspo (mean inspiration) is negative anorexia reinforcement, like aphorisms demonizing fat or destructive critic. Why are young girls so vulnerable to mental disease trends? What can we do better as a society to strengthen the resilience of kids?
  • api 8y ago
    It's not a gender thing. Young people in general are vulnerable to all kinds of negative groupthink because they don't have a fully formed identity, experience, or adult critical thinking skills. The nature of the toxic material seems to differ a bit by gender. Loads of teen boys are sucked into toxic online cults too including neo-Naziism, extreme misogyny, other kinds of toxic political radicalism, gaming addiction, self-help cults, etc.
    • ASalazarMX 8y ago
      I think you hit the nail in the head. Kids (and many grownups) are very vulnerable to groupthink, The only solution I see is encouraging common sense through critical thinking.
      • IfOnlyYouKnew 8y ago
        Considering most of these groups rally around conspiracy theories, which by definition start from a position of questioning commonly accepted facts (i. e. "critical thinking"), maybe we have actually gone too far with the critical thinking?
        • api 8y ago
          We teach the idea of critical thinking but not the intellectual disciplines of doing it honestly and effectively.
• bad_user 8y ago
  I think monitoring the child's online activity is a must, until he's mature enough and at 12 years old, that's basically the start of adolescence, when children aren't very trustworthy :-) On the other hand you can't let them know that you're constantly monitoring them, or they will feel suffocated and start a rebellion. In other words I think having some kind of anti-virus software on their computer or tablet, that logs the websites they visit, the articles they view, is totally fine. The problem is that many parents aren't very subtle when bringing up sensitive issues, causing anxiety and determining the child to hide in the future. And I don't have a good solution for it — my son is only 8 and I'm still thinking how to tackle such problems.
  • SlowRobotAhead 8y ago
    I had a couple mention to me "we don't like to big brother our kids".... Without thinking I said "big brother when you are the parent is just parenting." made the wife/mother really mad. Not sure what you do when they realizing you're watching them and then just get sneaky about it. I remember being sneaky. I assume my kids will be sneaky.
    • taobility 8y ago
      maybe not provide them the smartphone, and also limited the time of playing tablet?
    • closeparen 8y ago
      I don’t think anyone would consider making your children wear a wire to school/friends’ houses “just parenting.” Yet many parents are proud of the digital equivalent. The big bad internet is one thing, private conversations with real-world friends are another.
  • jstarfish 8y ago
    Yeah you really have to be tactful about it, and do parallel reconstruction wherever possible. Once they know their devices are bugged their behavior will change to evade you. On the other hand, like sysadmins who enjoy reviewing network logs to find which married executives spend their days skulking around Grindr there are a lot of parents that abuse this to become straight-up voyeurs. There's even an episode of Black Mirror about it. Regardless of your moral/religious convictions, you really don't want to discover or become party to your kids' sexual proclivities without cause. I don't bug my kids' devices, but I did have to resolve a sexual harassment issue with my own daughter. Her behavior was starting to become worrysome-- lengthy secretive sessions on her phone, followed by signs of distress, anxiety, not eating, etc. When she didn't have access to the phone (or the battery died) it was even worse. So I black-bagged the damn thing, found out what was going on, and confronted her only on the nature of her behavior ("you haven't been eating lately"), gently guiding the questions toward what I knew to be the truth ("is someone bothering you?") and letting her do the talking. She's none the wiser, the problem got resolved to mutual satisfaction, and I don't have to continuously violate her trust or privacy.
• chimeracoder 8y ago
  > From what I've seen, Tumblr can be a very toxic place and I could understand why advertisers would have problems with the content that ends up next to their ads. The content you're describing is not affected by this Tumblr policy change. Secondly, the content that you're describing is pervasive across all social media networks (Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and so forth). I'm sorry for your daughter's health struggles, and I wish her (and you) well, but it's a completely separate topic from today's announcement.
• type-2 8y ago
  Yeah but those are not adult content. They are undeniably very bad but tumblr is only banning porn.
  • noobermin 8y ago
    This post is literally "cocaine and rock and roll" but they know they won't win the war on calling for bans on porn for their innocent child's eyes so they do this diatribe that is fully unrelated to banning adult content.
• berberous 8y ago
  Anorexia (and pro-ana websites with words like "thinspo") were around before Tumblr even existed, so it's nothing new. I suppose recommendation algorithms and the existence of this stuff on popular platforms like Tumblr and Instagram could make it more viral and spread more, but I wonder if that's true (e.g. if Anorexia has increased in the past 10 years).
  • tapland 8y ago
    Yes, it was around and was more focused upon when I was a kid without an internet connection. But nowd you get that fed straight to you on sites/blog-platforms targeting children. All with huge real-time support groups that will help you not to eat. It's the $90/session personal trainers but available 24/7 and without any knowledge of side-effects and with a huge amount of denial.
  • duskwuff 8y ago
    Yep. Pro-ana groups were a serious problem back when Livejournal was still relevant (i.e, early/mid 2000s) -- and that was with very limited discoverability features. Modern recommendation algorithms just make the problem worse.
• panic 8y ago
  This content will still be allowed, though, since it's not "real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples".
  • tapland 8y ago
    Yeah it's just 'how to live an unhealthy life and risk dying well before turning 15: 101' I don't know what to do about it, but even as a tech savvy free speech proponent I feel very unhappy about the content kids consume on tumblr specifically. Bullying groups on snapchat etc are just the same old bullying upgraded with a better communications platform, but tumblr offers thousands of insane cult groups run for and by kids.
    • wolco 8y ago
      It is the same as before but parents feel safer the kids are on their room.
      • notyourday 8y ago
        That's because at this time parents manage to do the following two seemingly incompatible things: 1) pay no attention to the kids (got to do Netflix! Read HackerNews! Enjoy my hobbies!) 2) demand that the entire universe of everyone else revolved around their kids and those kids be protected against any possible exposure to the negative thoughts -- "Good vibes only!" So by the time kids become semi-autonomous adults they quite literally do not know what to do when anyone or anything does not fit into reality their parents managed to construct for them.
    • deleted 8y ago
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• deleted 8y ago
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• dqpb 8y ago
  Google "elsagate" for some other disturbing examples of how YouTube is being used to traumatize and corrupt our children.
  • ebullientocelot 8y ago
    I came across "elsagate" the other day and was unpleasantly not surprised by what it means. As a father of two young children this is a tough one--I'm 100% pro free speech, especially the speech I don't agree with, but have a hard time with deceptive messaging designed to harm vulnerable populations. I don't have an answer, but it sure is a damnable problem.
• qwerty456127 8y ago
  I'm sad this has happened to your daughter, nevertheless I believe it's your own fault, not Tumblr's (well, someway maybe, the recommendation system could have been made less nasty, people interested in weird content should probably search for it themselves) and not of its users. Every thing should have its corner on the web and you just shouldn't go and let your kids go to those that are not for you. The fact tigers will probably kill whoever they meet doesn't mean there should be no places on Earth where they are not exterminated, just don't go there unprepared. Not every site on the web is to be sterile. Also really dangerrous and really weird content like that you've described is not going to be affected by the new policy, all it bans are genitals and nipples which actually make nearly as much sense to hide as ears and fingers, people have imagined particular body parts are some kind worse than others and made this a part of the culture but it's not real and just seeing particular body parts can not actually harm a psyche of a healthy human in whatever an age (although I don't insist actual sexual acts can't).
• otakucode 8y ago
  None of that sounds like it would be affected by this. This move is to try to purge human sexuality from the platform, especially when it is depicted in a positive light. Appeals to insecurity, suffering, and ignorant health advice will still be permitted.
• duxup 8y ago
  >From what I've seen, Tumblr can be a very toxic place and I could understand why advertisers would have problems with the content that ends up next to their ads. I'm with you on the free speech thing. Early days of the internet I was much more optimistic / naive about free speech and the internet. Now, not so much. Not that I belive in government censorship, but maybe less naive about the results of free speech. I guess it would change if I had tons of money rolling in, but just generally if I created / ran a social media site, Facebook, Reddit... whatever. I'd feel really NOT OK with a lot of the content those sites are ok with hosting.
• ggggtez 8y ago
  Not to point out the obvious, but the content you are talking about isn't going to be affected. The issue with banning adult content, is that it often ends up being more easy to ban all adult content and LGBTQ+ content. Generally speaking, people on the fringes lose a safe place to discuss issues that matter to them, due to keyword proximity to pornographic keywords.
  • iamdave 8y ago
    I read the two anecdotes shared as mere allegories of the reaction tumblr is taking to the content that is being banned from the platform, not a 1:1 comparison of pornographic content and body image content; that in mind I think these types of stories are just as relevant when looking at how we signal collective approval of the types of content we are willing to expose ourselves and our young ones to-and the impact these disparate types of content have, wouldn't you say?
  • dmix 8y ago
    Likewise we can't ban/censor our way to good parenting nor will it prevent people (not just kids) from finding bad information in the internet. If anything the kids will stop using Tumblr at a faster rate once all of the false-positives of the censorship stuff blocks basic enjoyment.
• rustybelt 8y ago
  Why can't you monitor (almost) everything? Unless it's at a friend's house, my ten-year-old has no access to tumblr. I fail to understand why children must have access to internet connected devices.
  • code_duck 8y ago
    Just on google, children are a few clicks and a word or two away from hardcore porn. I agree that a parent who gives their child open internet access has to accept their kid will probably see disturbing things before they’re ready, or strictly restrict and monitor everything. I’m not even sure how feasible or reasonable it is to try.
  • Nelson69 8y ago
    What's your long term game plan with that? At some age, they'll get a device, are you just hoping for the best when that happens? Or "you pay for it, it's your problem" or what? We limit device time and I try to be as involved as I can, we ask them what they're doing, we try to play games with them, etc. Every day. We keep repeating the mantra about not talking to strangers online, and to tell us if they talk to you. Honestly, I think it's other stuff that will make the difference, spending time with them every day, talking to them about everything, and encouraging active participation in real world stuff like sports and some volunteer work for the homeless through our church. I don't disagree with the "no internet" idea exactly but at some point they'll be exposed to it and the way things are, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a smartphone was required equipment for junior high or highschool within the next 5-10 years. Already our schools send us just about everything online, we have regular emails with the teachers and they use google docs and other platforms for online sharing within the school.
    • MickerNews 8y ago
      >What's your long term game plan with that? That they're going to be more mature when that happens because they've demonstrated that they weren't ready just yet.
      • 8y ago
• acquacow 8y ago
  Pintrest is the same way... there are tons of pro-ana pinboards/etc up there, so beware.
• nzp 8y ago
  People don't try to kill themselves, even if they're 12, just because they "get sucked" into some website. There's a deeper reason she went into it than merely being an otherwise merry teenager exploring what's out there.
  • dang 8y ago
    It's ok to make a point like that in general, but not fine when it's personal, and there's nothing more personal than a case like this. Please don't do that here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
• em3rgent0rdr 8y ago
  What about safety filters or parental controls?
• GreeniFi 8y ago
  I’m really sorry to hear this story. It makes me feel pretty sad, and worried as a recent parent. I think I have a preference for free speech, but stories like this really make me wonder where the boundaries are. Communities are bound together by common stories. If we cannot control the stories members listen to, the community ceases to function. And I’m starting to wonder whether we are beginning to see this failure writ large around the world right now.
• devwastaken 8y ago
  The modern web hasn't changed from olden times in any significant manner. Yeah, there's not just random cp being shared across open channels, but the internet is a reflection of humanity. Humans love to share their problems and evils through it. Platforms like Tumblr take what you've found some interest in and scope in on it to surround you with it. I had a 14 yo cousin who started subscribing to /r/incels and a 'pol' attitude and is simply incapable of being a decent human being. All it takes is group-think and idealogy. People will fall into it, and teens are especially targetable. You two will get through it. Teens have a lot more change to go through.
• jimmy_chewbone 8y ago
  The solution is in societal morals and not in tech companies doing the censoring.
  • kartan 8y ago
    I posted this 1 day ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18583017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18583017) "YouTube, for example, can show advertisements for well known companies in videos about Anti-vaccination, far-right conspiracies, etc. without consequences. Why is that? Because all that happens in the privacy of your own computer. Usually any newspaper that publicly have printed such bullshit in their pages will be dead. Public will react to it. What is different? Facebook, YouTube, etc. are personalized. You are shown what you are interested in without public accountability. Niche radical content gets a lot of views for its own controversial nature. Views and money. Who wants to investigate, hire good writers and expend the money that it takes to write a good article when you can hire some one without ethics for a fraction of the price and get as many or more views as radicalization grows? YouTube, Facebook and others say that they are not responsible of the content they offer. I think that it should be true for things like comments. But for the monetized content they are 100% responsible of incentivizing that radicalization and killing good journalism in the process. " Tech (apps) companies cannot solve so much problems as they think. But, they can solve the problems that they have created.
    • Nasrudith 8y ago
      How are they supposed to do that? You can't watch all of youtube. Even all of monetized youtube. As for good journalism it either committed suicide or was killed off by management depending on perspective - either way it was quite a while ago. The actual newspaper conglomerated were doing the same damn thing before there was a Google - just look up a list of old moral panics. Look up Grunge slang hoax - they didn't even call a guy in Seattle to ask if they ever heard anything like the joke article to be sure it wasn't somebody taking the piss - and it was.
  • B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
    > societal morals Good luck with that. Advertisers figured out they could pound those to a pulp, and they were not wrong. Any sane man of a couple centuries ago is now a leper by modern standards. They don't have us walking on our hands because ... I don't know, perhaps there's no money in it or that did not yet occur to them.
• androidgirl 8y ago
  Hey, firstly I am so very sorry for what you and your family is going through. Having a child encounter very scary parts of the world is always awful. I'm now in my early 20's, but when I was a kid about your daughter's age I also stumbled into that awful, awful corner of the web and developed an eating disorder (ED). As an adult now, my message is it can and will get better. ED is a tough problem, but with work and persistence both she and you can work through it. I won't tell you how to raise your daughter, at all. Just offering a sympathetic viewpoint!
• deleted 8y ago
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• davemp 8y ago
  The loose association, engagement suggestion algorithms are seriously dangerous. The suggestions can cause a "thermal run-away" [1] feedback loop for the mind. Even in a less egregious example than the OP, take modern English for example. If search engines loosely relate English words to some moving abstract concepts, humans no longer have direct control over the colloquial. In a world that defines terms with Google Search, the implications can be disturbing.For example :: Search: "the beatles are an antiquated band" -- Results -> "Beatlemania in 1964: 'This has gotten entirely out of control' ...", "Quincy Jones: 'The Beatles were the worst musicians in the world ...", etc. And: "the beatles are an obsolete band" -- Results -> "We'll Never See a Band as Big as The Beatles Again — Here's Why - Mic", "Is the notion of a rock band obsolete? - Quora", etc. __note:__ these results come from a computer with little google finger printing. Definitions: [2] -- Obsolete :: "no longer in general use; fallen into disuse:" -- Antiquated :: "continued from, resembling, or adhering to the past; old-fashioned:" -- Antiquated :: "no longer used; obsolete or obsolescent: " Why are these almost synonymous, benign words related to love of and hate of? I honestly fear for what could be unethical software engineering [3] in these critical resources. Thermal run away of hardware is taken very seriously--see the Samsung Note 7 battery fires. --- [1]: In a circuit, current through a resistor causes heat generation. Increasing heat on a resistor also lowers its resistance. Lowering resistance can increase current (V = IR). Ad infinitum or until catastrophic failure. [2]: definitions from Dictionary.com on 12/2018 As a thought exercise, try replacing "current" with "negative emotions", "resistor" with "mind". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_runaway#Electrical_engineering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_runaway#Electrical_eng... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_ethics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_ethics
• tumblr-what 8y ago
  This sort of stuff furthers my resolve to give my kids dumbphones and PCs with no internet access until they're at least 14 or 15, with plenty of education beforehand. For example, at school we got taught about anorexia, body image and coping strategies in junior high. If they need to get online they can use the family PC in the living room that's in full view of everyone. My observation is that what I can only call information operations on Tumblr are very similar in form to various groups retweeting divisive political memes on Twitter or other social media. Most likely it has been freelance individuals with some sort of sexual fetish, not an organization, but still. It's not normal user behavior to be constantly re-posting and mashing up memes all day long every day encouraging pre-teen girls to be anorexic.
  • iamdave 8y ago
    My observation is that what I can only call information operations on Tumblr are very similar in form to various groups retweeting divisive political memes on Twitter or other social media. I'm sure it's no different on any other platform, so I hope this comment isn't seen as some way to skewer tumblr for being unique in this regard: but the number of times I've stumbled across content spreading some nugget of content about a health-condition, mental state of being or current event that is OBJECTIVELY untrue getting eager reshares and comments applauding the original poster that would cause any trained professional to expire from the horror is staggering to behold sometimes. Again, not unique to tumblr, not here to suggest it is, but since it's the focus of the conversation we're having, there it is. Already I've seen people I follow talking about leaving the platform because of this decision, which is going to hurt my own blog as I rely on them to discover new and interesting content (not porn, but I'm a big fan of futurist artwork, giant robots, Ralph McQuarie style space paintings, stuff like that).
• Nelson69 8y ago
  I'm sorry to hear that. I wish the best for your family. Is there something unique to tumblr that makes this content thrive there? If tumblr cleans their stuff up (and I know there are legitimate stuff that is impacted by that) won't those communities find refuge elsewhere? There are some incredibly seedy parts of reddit and sites like voat and just tons of places where there is "bad stuff" on the internet.
• hosbjhsuuvs 8y ago
  Balancing free speech is easy, more speech the better. 'think or my child' is the absolute bottom of rhetorical speech, it ranks worse than '...but nazis' Stop sacrifing my basic rights because you're terrified.
• AdrianB1 8y ago
  This is the most obvious trolling attempt ever. I cannot understand how diet plans relate to women nipple ban and how the ban will help anyone eat healthy. And you mention free speech? How is that related to anything in the topic? Please remember never to travel to Germany, you will find naked people sunbathing in public places (parks) and most of these people have nipples. What is next, a flat Earth campaign banning all the globe representations?
• madamelic 8y ago
  I'm sorry about your daughter, but blaming Tumblr completely for her disordered behavior is incorrect. Simply being exposed to the existence of behavior doesn't cause a disorder. She would've developed those behaviors regardless, maybe not to the same degree but you can't 'catch' or 'develop' anorexia nervosa (or any other mental illness) from viewing media. You can absolutely make it way worse, but the seed has to have already been planted. There are biological and mental predipositions to eating disorders. If people could will themselves to have eating disorders, everyone would have eating disorders. It's a really terrible disease and blaming 'the Internet' papers over the deeper reasons she developed the disorder (pressure to reach high standards, little control, hopelessness, etc)
• paulddraper 8y ago
  My sympathies. The internet an interconnected web of information, used by both children and adults. It can be more friendly for children when large platform "police themselves", but those efforts will naturally paint with very broad strokes. I suspect the best strides here will be made by parental restrictions, so that the choices can be more individual and appropriate. (That's no panacea either of course; I'm merely suggesting it is the most promising solution.)