Sexual predators are targeting vulnerable teens through online ‘anorexia coaching’
Platforms are looking the other way
Targeting teens
Anestimated 4% of Australians, or roughly one million people, are affected by eating disorders. And almost two-thirds (63%) of these people are thought to be female.
Teenagerswith eating disorders are more likely to experience poor mental health and impaired functioning in social environments — which leaves them more vulnerable to the influence of anacoaches.
Credit: Author Provided
Also,researchhasshownsocial media use can exacerbate the extent to which teenagers and young adults chase a “thin” ideal.
One studypublished by a Dutch human rightslaw groupon the predatory behaviors of anacoaches found self-reporting victims had been sexually assaulted and even raped.
And with anacoaching comes the potential for other forms of criminal abuse, such as pedophilia, forced prostitution, and even human trafficking.
Social media provides the platform
With the rise of online platforms, there has been an emergence of communities pursuing a thin ideal. These networks tend to share content that endorses extreme thinness.
Group identity is formed through interactions and hashtag sharing, with a focus on terms used regularly in the context of eating disorders. Common hashtags include #proana (pro-anorexia), #bonespo (bone inspiration), #edtw (eating disorder trigger warning), #promia (pro bulimia), #bulimia, #thighgap, #uw (ultimate weight), #cw (current weight), #gw (goal weight) and #tw (trigger warning).
As highlighted in my previousresearch, communication in these communities includes exchanging weight-loss tips, diet plans, extreme exercise plans, imagery of thin bodies, and emotional “support”.
Anacoaches lurk in chat forums focused on thin ideals. Each coach will tend to be present in numerous chatrooms, luring teenagers with stories of their past “successes” from coaching.
They market themselves with dubious claims. Some will assign themselves labels such as “strict coach” or “mean coach”. The screenshots below show messages posted on the app Kik.
Credit: Author Provided
Credit: Author Provided
The coaching predominantly involves sharing pictures and videos for nude body checks (or in undergarments), weekly weigh-ins, and enforcing strict rules on what foods to eat and avoid.
While there’s currently no way to know how long coaching lasts on average, the harms are extensive. Because of the way its content algorithms work, TikTok, which has a massive young following, will start to recommend user accounts centered around eating disorders once such content is initially sought.
There are currently not enough regulations in place by platforms to prevent anacoaches from operating, despite an array of reports highlighting the issue.
Credit: Author Provided
What is being done?
Best efforts so farhave involvedInstagram, TikTok, and Pinterest filtering out selected words such as “proana” or “thinspo” and banning searches for content that promotes extreme thinness.
A TikTok spokesperson told The Conversation the platform does not allow content depicting, promoting, or glorifying eating disorders.
Credit: Author Provided
“When a user searches for terms related to eating disorders, we don’t return results and instead we direct them to the Butterfly Foundation and provide them with helpful and appropriate advice. We’ve also introduced permanent public service announcements (PSAs) on related hashtags to help provide support for our community,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said accounts found to be engaging in sexual harassment may be banned. Platforms will ban users if they violate user guidelines, but anacoaches willoften reappearunder a new account name.
According to Twitter, evading account bans is against the rules. Earlier this year Twitter announced it would enable asafety modethat will allow users to turn on the proactive screening of spammy and abusive content. It remains to be seen what role this will play in curbing targeted attacks from anacoaches.
Aresearch-based reportreleased this month by the 5Rights Foundation has detailed how minors online are targeted with sexual and suicide-related content. It references platforms including Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Discord, Twitch, Yubo, YouTube, and Omegle.
The research showed children as young as 13 are directly targeted with harmful content online within 24 hours of creating an account online. They may receive unsolicited messages from adults offering pornography, as well as recommendations for eating disorder content, extreme diets, self-harm, suicide, and sexualized or distorted body images.
Australia’s policies involving platforms need to be overhauled to ensure platforms adhere to community guidelines and are held accountable when violations occur.
The government should prescribe set rules, informed by the eSafety office, regarding how vulnerable youth online should be helped.
A nuanced intervention approach would generate better outcomes for users with eating disorders as each user would have adifferent setof circumstances and a different mental health state.
Anacoaches on social media should be considered and dealt with like criminals. And platforms that fail to uphold this should face fines for failing to provide a safe user environment for the vulnerable.
In the past, the European Unionhas finedplatforms for allowing terrorist content. Social media giants have also hired contract workers to screen content for examples of terrorism, pedophilia, and abuse. This effort should be extended to include anacoaches.
Credit: Author Provided
The Conversation approached Tumblr for comment but did not receive replies within the deadline allocated. Popular messaging app Kik wasacquired byMediaLab in 2019. The Conversation approached MediaLab for comment but did not receive a response within the allocated time frame.
Article bySuku Sukunesan, Senior Lecturer in Information Systems,Swinburne University of Technology
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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