Mixed Messages..Study Looks at Pro-anorexia websites [1st Amendment challenge]

MSNBC via Newsweek ^

[AppyPappy]

Mixed Messages Proponents say they offer 'support,' but a Stanford study finds that patients who visited pro-anorexia Web sites were sicker longer.

Web Exclusive By Karen Springen Newsweek Updated: 7:09 p.m. ET Dec 7, 2006

Dec. 7, 2006 - Drink ice-cold water ("your body has to burn calories to keep your temperature up") and hot water with bullion cubes ("only 5 calories a cube, and they taste wonderful"). When a food craving strikes, give yourself a manicure ("applying extra layers of slow-drying polish. It will keep your hands occupied"). These kinds of tips are common fare in the growing world of "pro-ana" (pro-anorexia) and "pro-mia" (pro-bulimia) Web sites. More than 200 such sites now cater to the estimated .5 to 1 percent of adolescent and adult women who are anorexic and to the 1 to 2 percent who are bulimic.

[AppyPappy]

Scary article. It wouldn't surprise me if this became a challenge to the internet.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Where's the pic of the obscenely fat dude with the t-shirt that says "I conquered anorexia"?

[theBuckwheat]

So what? People who visited pro-MSM web sites stayed mentally ill longer.

[Tanniker Smith]

Well aren't anorexia and bullima considered to be alternative lifestyles that are equal to the non-anos and non-imas' lifestyles?

I mean, duh, like, why are people such anorexiaphobes?
If, like, Kate Moss wants to starve herself to death, whom does that hurt? Like, how does that hurt you, huh?

Like, TS

[RockinRight]

[TommyDale]

Looks like someone else watched "Boston Legal" this week!

[BenLurkin]

Scary indeed how many people have a wishy-washy view of the Bill of Rights! These rights are ours -- by the inalienable grant of God.

Part of the problem is that the warping of American political thought has -- in some minds -- turned the Bill of Rights into a document which allegedly defines "rights" granted to the people of the government. This instead of what it and the rest of the Constitution really are; which is, a document limiting the powers of the Federal government.

[pwatson]

I sent this to my Brother in law, he has a 20 year old daughter who is close to dieing from Anorexia. When I saw her at Thanksgiving her face was a pale white and her skin looked horrible. She is literally dieing in front of our eyes and we can not stop her. This is far worse than drug or alcohol addiction or any other kind of disorder I have known. We have had her in a hospital and a clinic.

[dfwgator]

What about websites promoting "bug chasing"?

[Gingersnap]

While I no interest in getting tips and hints on self-starvation, I also have no interest censorship. The Internet is loaded with pages devoted to self-harm of one kind or another. Where would it stop, exactly?