Editor in chief of Vogue Italia, Franca Sozzani, is reportedly launching a petition to shut down pro-anorexia websites that encourage unhealthy eating habits among young people.
Vogue Italia's Editor in chief, Franca Sozzani, is spearheading an online campaign to shut down pro-anorexia websites that encourage unhealthy eating habits among young people. Sozzani turned to her blog to point fingers at the social networking site Facebook for being a major cause of eating disorders and to launch a campaign against pro-anorexia websites.
She cited results from recent study by the University of Haifa in Israel that surveyed 248 girls ages 12 to 19 and found that those who spent more time on Facebook were more likely to develop eating disorders and have negative body images, the Huffington Post reported.
Sozzani wrote that she was shocked to find out that a multitude of "pro-ana" websites encouraging dangerous weight-loss behaviors such as vomiting and laxative use started out as Facebook pages.
"They have weird names and, from "Ana's girls" onwards, provide a kind of open confessional supporting those who are unable to carry on by themselves along a road that can only lead to death," the New York Daily News quoted her as writing of the sites.
In her blog, Sozzani asked Vogue Italia readers to add their names to an online petition aimed at shutting down the sites, which she said are easily accessible to everyone on the Internet.
The petition had already accumulated more than 600 digital signatures.
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