It is the contention of two researchers, Bardone-Cone and Kamilla Cass that websites that talk about anorexia actually promote eating disorders in young women.  

Honestly, why blame websites?  No one really knows why many young girls and boys actually starve themselves and harm their bodies.  

According to this recent study, when young women view such sites for tips on how to lose weight or out of curiosity and regardless of their current weight or eating habits, such pro-anorexia sites works "on a couple of levels, it works on mood, it works on your body image," said Dr Anna M Bardone-Cone of the University of Missouri in Columbia. "Everyone's affected."

The researchers would like parents to prevent children from viewing these "pro-ana" websites because many health professionals "have expressed concerns that the sites, which include "thinspiration" photos of skeletal models and "Tips and Tricks" for losing weight, may be harmful to viewers."

In their investigation when several college students, some with possible eating disorders and some overweight,  viewed a prototype proanorexic website they had "worse moods, worse social self-esteem and a worse sense of their ability to cope with their appearance" than those participants in the group who viewed a site with normal weight fashion modes or a home decor site.

This effect was the same for women who were overweight or not or whether they reported they had eating disorders.  After viewing such pro-anorexia sites, according to this study, young women who thought they were heavier said they were more likely to exercise and think about their weight in the near future.

According to The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, approximately eight million Americans or 3% of the total population suffer from anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and related eating disorders. Research indicates that 1% of young women between the age of 10 and 20 years suffer from anorexia and bulimia.  About 4% of college aged women have bulimia.  Studies have also noted an increase in the incidence of this disease in middle-aged women. Overall, more females than males tend to suffer from anorexia and bulimia and some studies have reported this disease in children as young as 6 years and individuals as old as 76 years. 
       
Why do some girls and some boys starve their bodies to the extent of contradicting the natural impetus to feed, nourish and survive?  Since the 19th century, many theories have been suggested, with the latest attributing this phenomenon to genetics. None completely explain this disease.

While genetic research indicates a "latent vulnerability to eating disorders" that gets turned on when exposed to certain environmental influences, others suggest problems in brain chemistry, sexual anxiety, a controlling mother and fashion magazines that extol skinny bodies and a culture focused on weight and looks.

A few years ago, an article by Kate Taylor in the Slate, an anorexic herself from the age of 10 years, suggests " because anorexia is so complex, each theory gets at least part of it right. But the most appealing thing about these interpretations is that they sidestep one particularly disturbing aspect of anorexia, which is that it's at least partly voluntary and willful...Only one doctor—the "father of hysteria," neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot—suggested that anorexics were motivated by a conscious desire to be thin.

It's easier to see anorexics as victims, whether of social forces or biology, than to imagine that they derive pleasant sensations from their behavior. But they do. The disease often makes them feel special and unique. Until we discard the victim model and admit that anorexia, though destructive, often fulfills a deep personal need, we can't begin to investigate what makes a person vulnerable to it. Evidence that anorexia now affects an unexpectedly wide range of people provides an impetus for a new, more complex theory of the illness. But any such theory must acknowledge the willful aspect of anorexia, instead of trying to turn the disease into something as random and involuntary as a cold."

Why blame websites, magazines or TV?  In a study reported in Medscape's General Medicine 6(3) in 2004, the rates of eating disorders in non-Western countries ranged from 0.46% to 3.2% in female subjects and increasing.  While lower than those of western countries, the increase has been attributed to the influence "at least in part, of Western media: movies, TV shows, and magazines".  

Could this increase be partly attributable to better reporting techniques? Also, are parents becoming more aware of eating disorders in these countries and have more access to health care professionals? And, finally, are doctors in non-Western countries becoming more knowledgeable about eating disorders themselves?