French legislation against pro-thin promotion

A bill that has passed the French legislature’s lower house and goes to the Senate soon is going after all media promoting eating disorders, including pro-anorexia Web sites, the Los Angeles Times reports. Forbes reports that “France has several laws in place to regulate modeling agencies, including requiring underage models to have regular health check-ups.” Regulating the domestic fashion industry, advertising, and conventional media is one thing, but Web sites are more problematic, not just because they’re based all over the world. Another significant problem is, it would be awfully hard for courts and law enforcement to know what to do about Web sites in which both anorexics and those trying to help them have blogs and profiles. Adam Thierer of the TechLiberation blog has another interesting argument against the regulation of Web sites: “Wouldn’t we better off engaging these pro-ana people and websites directly? That is, don’t ban them or drive them underground, but instead go directly to those sites ourselves and engage in a discussion about what most of us would regard as unhealthy lifestyles.” See also “Eating disorders & the social Web” and “Online eating disorder communities.”