Eating-disorder ‘ed’ on the Net

Young sufferers of eating disorders are getting the wrong kind of reinforcement on the Web, according to a new study in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Not only are they learning about “new weight loss or purging methods from Web sites that promote eating disorders,” but also from each other on “Web sites aimed at helping them recover,” Reuters reports. “The survey by researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford showed a third of patients [aged 10-22] also visited pro-recovery sites, and half of them learned new weight loss and purging methods.” Here’s Newsweek’s coverage.