Pinterest Bans Pro Eating Disorders Boards
The Victorian is a community of professional women who work
very hard, day in and day out to nurture our clients back from their eating
disorders. Many people are shocked to hear that there are communities of women
all over the world trying to do the exact opposite. Widely known as communities
that call themselves Pro-Ana, meaning Pro-Anorexic or Pro-Mia, meaning
Pro-Bulimic. They have community sites called, “Pro Ana Blogs” and “Thinspiraton
Websites.” These communities encourage starvation, purging and other eating
disorder behaviors in order to obtain thin figures.
Due to the work of Social Media Watch Dogs, like the
National Eating Disorder Association many of these community sites have been
shut down. The groups that have spoken up on behalf of all women in eating
disorder recovery have blasted against social media in news, magazines, twitter
and more. They demand these social media enterprises be responsible for the
content they allow on their sites. In the past they have been successful with cooperation
from Facebook and Tumblr who have shut communities down.
This week they came
to a healthy agreement with one other social media mogul Pinterest. Pinterest
is the newest social media kid on the block; the website allows users to link
images of their favorite images, crafts, recipes, articles, clothing and design
inspiration from around the web. The unfortunate thing was many people from the
Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia community were using the site to post images encouraging each
other of their unhealthy and deadly pursuits. Thankfully Pinterest has sent out
new terms of service prohibit posting content that “creates a risk of
harm, loss, physical or mental injury, emotional distress, death, disability,
disfigurement, or physical or mental illness to yourself, to any other person,
or to any animal.” In other words as of April 6th 2012 thinspiration
boards will be banned.
To check out The Victorians healthy, inspiring Pinterestboard click HERE!
Happy Recovery,
Irvina
Eating Disorder Self Test. Take the EAT-26 self test to see if you might have eating disorder symptoms that might require professional evaluation. All answers are confidential.