The promotion of eating disorders and negative body image is not just limited to TV and magazine advertisements urging women to be skinny and beautiful – these issues have gravitated toward the Internet and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is addressing these problems by forming a partnership with the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) and other safety and prevention groups.
“We work with a lot of different safety groups in a lot of different fields,” Facebook spokesman Fred Wolens said. “While we are the ones in contact with our users, we’re not necessarily the expert in all these different fields, so we want to make sure that we speak to the right people who have the expertise and the knowledge when it comes to these issues.”
The partnership was announced Feb. 18, 2011 but NEDA and Facebook have been discussing it since January.
“We look to [NEDA] to make sure that our policies and our materials and everything else that we do is in line with best practices,” Wolens said.
Other groups Facebook is working with include the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the National Network to End Domestic Violence, he said.
The specifics still need to be worked out for the partnership, but Facebook already has made some changes by updating the FAQs in the help center to include information and more exact language about eating disorders, Wolens said.
(Author note: At the time of this publication, Wolens didn’t provide the links that showed any language specific to eating disorders. The information is supposed to be located at www.facebook.com/safety. I'll update the article with that information when it's provided.)
“NEDA reviewed our reporting guidelines around eating disorders,” Wolens said. “Our user operation team has been working with NEDA to make sure we’re correctly identifying what does and doesn’t qualify as inspiration material.”
Users are expected to report inappropriate content.
“Our main channel is user reports,” Wolens said. “We have over 500 million users, and we like to think of that as the world’s largest neighborhood watch, and we have report links all over the site … we really look to our users to help keep the site safe.”
It can be difficult to determine what material is in support of survivors versus promoting eating disorders, or somewhere in between, he said.
“A lot of it, it’s so contextual,” Wolens said. “Whereas it’s very easy for two friends to joke around, it’s hard to separate that from harassment.” The user operations team is well-trained to deal with these issues, but he said the NEDA alliance will help even more.
There can be a fine line between freedom of expression and safety, but the promotion of unsafe behavior falls under a safety issue. It’s also hard to tell if promotion of eating disorders on Facebook is even a major issue.
“I think the way we feel is that … whatever happens in the real world winds up happening on Facebook just because it’s become very integrated in peoples’ lives and people take a lot of regular discourses they have in the real world to Facebook,” Wolens said. “I don’t think it’s any more or less of a problem than in the real world.”
Some future goals of the partnership include monitoring and removing harmful content, and adding more information to the FAQs and safety center on Facebook.
Dee Christoff, the vice president of administration and development at NEDA, said that Facebook contacted the association with concerns about issues with self-harm, including eating disorders.
“They contacted me and let me know that they would be looking for NEDA’s advice regarding … text that we could help them with that would enable them to both filter what things might really be of concern and then how to address that with individuals,” Christoff said.
After users flag content, posters of the inappropriate information would be directed to information about eating disorders.
“Eating disorders have the highest death rate of any mental illness,” Christoff said. Therefore, Facebook wanted assistance with helping deal with content that could trigger someone to develop an eating disorder or just promote the continuation of eating disorders.
She mentioned one example of eating disorder promotion on social media sites. Kenneth Tong, a former Big Brother contestant, Tweeted in support of anorexia supposedly to get attention. The Tweets included messages about women who are fat being “sub-par” and that women should “get thin or die trying.” Some say it was a hoax, but a Huffington Post columnist thinks he became worried about legal issues and claimed it was a hoax. Johann Hari stated that during the interview Tong said “fat women are ‘disgusting,’ and any woman over a Size Zero is fat and therefore ‘worthless.’” He also said that women should become “managed anorexics” and that he was working on a “Size Zero pill.”
A recent study also came out that found there are pro-anorexia groups that connect through the Internet, though it didn’t mention Facebook. These groups promote “self-loathing strategies” and offer encouragement for anorexics to continue their unhealthy behavior.
Christoff is uncertain about whether the issue is more prevalent on Facebook than in the real world, but she said some people may say some things on Facebook that they wouldn’t feel comfortable saying in front of a live person.
“The good news is that if they are making those remarks, whereas they might not be talking about it to their parents or their friends or … face-to-face, this gives NEDA and Facebook both an opportunity to say ‘Hey, let’s stop for a second and think about what you just posted, and here’s some relevant information that you might want to consider,’’ Christoff said.
It’s not certain if users will actually use the opportunity to report others who are posting content promoting eating disorders, though there are individuals who are activists in this area or are in support of prevention of eating disorders and negative body image, she said.
Since Facebook contacted NEDA, Christoff is not sure if NEDA will be working with other social media sites like Twitter, but she said the association would be interested in any opportunities.
Although this partnership is an important step, it won’t necessarily prevent eating disorders.
“Eating disorders are very complex,” Christoff said. “You can’t say that someone is going to get an eating disorder just because a classmate called them fat or because they saw something on Facebook. It’s usually a complex array of factors that cause eating disorders. But the more that we can create a safe place for people and not promote and trigger eating disorders, the fewer people we hope will get them or get them as seriously.”
This year's National Eating Disorders Awareness Week ends Feb. 26, 2011 and she encourages people to use Facebook and other social media sites in a positive way.
“We ask people to do just one thing to help increase awareness about eating disorders during this week,” Christoff said. “One of the things that we’ve asked that people do is to post positive messages on their Facebook pages and on Twitter, etc. We hope to see a lot of messaging out there that actually promotes positive body image and helps people feel comfortable and confident in their jeans.”
Information and sources:
NEDA Helpline: 800-931-2237
Website: www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/promoting-anorexia-an-int_b_807807.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/12/kenneth-tong-anorexia-twitter
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/82t0bf
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110222122204.htm (pro-anorexia groups on the Internet)