Good morning! Let’s start the day with a terrifying fact, shall we? According to Optenet Research (a global IT security company and provider of high-performance content filtering solutions) websites promoting Anorexia and Bulimia has increased 470% since 2006!

Sorry to make you gag on your breakfast but, the fact that there are sites out there that actually teach you how to gag up your breakfast is infuriating, disgusting and depressing. I knew of the pro-Ana and pro-Mia culture, but had no idea that its presence was so strong online.

Pro-ana refers to the rejection of the idea that anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder. It is often referred to simply as “ana” and is sometimes affectionately personified by anorexics as a girl named Ana. Pro-mia, refers to the rejection of the idea that bulimia is an eating disorder.

As a former bulimic and educator/speaker on the topic of food and body issues, I am personally offended and terrified by the online presence of pro-ana and pro-mia. Eating disorders are an illness. Rarely are ED’s about dieting or food, they are a symptom of a larger issue be it self-esteem, escapism, control, abuse and so on and so forth. They are certainly not something to be taught, celebrated, or achieved.

Yet another reason why I love/hate the Internet. Anyone can make a website, no matter how f-ed up the content. Through annonymous posts and chat rooms, sufferers can create the dillusion that their disorder is not an illness, but rather a lifestyle of which they are proud. By teaching others how to partake in their disordered behaviors, they create communities (misery loves company) thus using the justification that “everyone else is doing it.”

And sadly, I’m not surprised the above statistic. The internet is a place where anyone can be anyone. You can live a secret life online, even a secret life that will slowly kill you. (Without treatment, up to 20% of people with serious eating disorders die. With treatment, the mortality rate falls to 2-3%)

Let me reiterate. Not eating and/or making yourself vomit will KILL YOU. It’s pretty hard to chat it up on pro-ana-dot-whatever when you are dead.

Sorry for the sarcasm and snippy-ness, but this pisses me off. It really, really pisses me off. More so, it makes me afraid for the future. What’s next with technology? A robot that sticks it’s fingers down your throat while filming it live on a webcam and then online viewers of your bulimic episode can vote in for best barf? It makes me afraid for my two-year old niece and my unborn daughters, what messed up knowledge will the Internet offer them in ten, fifteen, twenty years?

And it’s not just pro-eating disorder sites that have increased. Pages associated with violent content increased 125 percent. Web sites promoting racism experienced a 70 percent increase. Pro-drug Web sites increased by 62 percent. And as if children weren’t in enough cyber dangers…content related to child pornography increased 18 percent.

Great. Just great. This makes me want to log off and never, ever log on again. Anyone interested in moving to a mountain top with me? Anyone?

Joel Silberman, vice president North America, Optenet said:

“Due to the rapidly increasing amount of dangerous and illicit content on the Internet, people need to take serious measures to protect their families and businesses. It is no coincidence that pro-anorexia and bulimia sites have increased 470 percent and that personal Web pages have similarly increased 455 percent. As the Web continues to evolve from commercial to social, it is more vital than ever for parents and managers alike to categorize, monitor and control online activity.”- breitbart.com

So what do we do? Here are three ways we can try to make cyberspace and our space a better place.

1) Parents, monitor their children’s Internet usage. Sure, your kid may access unsafe sites out of your home but in your home you can block content that is unsafe to your kids. Check their site viewing history and if you see that they have been visiting pro unsafe sites, talk to them. Don’t attack or accuse, but talk to them. Acknowledge how hard it is to be a kid. Validate their feelings. Let them know you are there for them. It’s amazing what the power of a parents non-judgmental and compassionate word can do for a young person.

2) Support organizations that are working toward change!Get involved with groups that help people with eating disorders, that help make the Internet safer, that teach anti-violence, that are trying to stop child pornography. Some sites to check out and take part (and this is just a small list of many, many wonderful organizations):
takepart against eating disorders at http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org

takepart against child pornography at http://www.antichildporn.org/

takepart against violnece and check out http://www.stop-violence.org/

takepart and visit inhope.org to learn more about making the Internet safer. INHOPE worked with Optenet to conduct the online research study. INHOPE represents Internet Hotlines all over the world, supporting them in their aim to respond to reports of illegal content to make the Internet safer.

3) Shut down your computer once in a while! Yes, we need the Internet. I love the Internet. But try to decrease your usage, if only by 20 minutes a day. Instead, use that time to do something like…
*Have a live conversation, instead of an IM chat.
*Stop checking your current crushes Facebook status, and make the bold move and ask your crush on a human date.
*Call your mom or dad, instead of sending them another “dancing chimp” Ecard.
*Volunteer your time to a good cause, instead of volunteering all your time to obsessively reading your exes blog (again).
*Hang out with friends and actually laugh out loud instead of typing LOL.
*Make someone smile by spending face time with them, instead of typing a :).
*Throw a party to show your friends you love them, instead of sending them a generic “poem about friendship forward, now send this to 10 friends or get bad luck” email.
*Meditate and research yourself, instead of spending all day on Google researching yourself.

And with that, I am logging off and getting out of my apartment!