While anorexia nervosa is recognized as a serious and often fatal psychological disease, several studies out this year have shown a steady rise in pro-ana (pro-anorexic) and pro-mia (pro-bulimic) websites.

Portraying eating disorders as a method of self-control rather than self-destruction, their controversial message is rapidly spreading to an increasingly younger Internet generation; one already obsessed with an unrealistic perception of beauty

“We need a social change, and these websites are going against it,” said Ivonne Robles, a counsellor at the B.C. Eating Disorders Program in Victoria. “They’re just encouraging women to torture themselves.”

More than 500 pro-ana websites exist today, with girls as young as 10 believed to be logging on. Sites like Fading Obsession, PrettyThin, and Emaciate Me portray eating disorders as a means of achieving perfection, and they present anorexics as a clique who have successfully mastered their bodies.

The sites offer tips on hiding weight loss from parents, starvation and distraction techniques, and what the sites call “thinspirational” photos of emaciated models and skeletal celebrities.

Pro-Ana sites incite a sense of community and pride, where successful anorexics are considered to be the elite and casual dieters who join are named “wannarexics.”

Open forums exist for members to urge each other to starve and compete to lose weight. Often a section called the Ana Code, or Creed, will contain a list of affirmations that girls can recite, reminding themselves to fast: “If you aren’t thin, you aren’t attractive. Being thin is more important than being healthy. Getting skinny will make all your dreams come true.”

A documentary released this year titled The Truth About Online Anorexia shone a spotlight on the hidden world of eating disorders. Television presenter Fearne Cotton travelled across Britain, interviewing recovering anorexics, pro-ana website creators and elementary schoolgirls. Because these websites aren’t banned by the government, anyone can gain access to these images.

Cotton interviewed girls as young as 10 who’d been to these sites and, at 90 pounds, already considered themselves fat.

“If you’re age 14, and you’ve not got much life experience, you might look at this and go ‘this person says I don’t need food; I shouldn’t be eating it,’” said Cotton. “It’s terrifying. This website should be illegal.”

  While some servers like Yahoo have begun banning the sites, they pop up again as quickly as they are shut down. A 2008 survey by Internet security firm Optenet found a 470 per cent increase in pro-ana and pro-mia sites from 2006 to 2007.

The danger of these websites is their disillusioned idea that anorexia is a way of life, rather than a psychiatric illness with a 22 per cent chance of death, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Groups like Stop Pro-Ana are urging the government to ban these sites. They often cause young girls with unhealthy body image ideals to experiment with starvation, and can cause recovering anorexics to relapse.

Despite the disclaimer that appears before you enter the site warning of its content, Stop Pro-Ana’s research has shown that these websites are addictive, often misleading, and easily accessible to people of all ages.

“Don’t believe everything you read,” stressed Robles, who’s seen countless cases of severe eating disorders.

“That’s our problem; men and women always believe everything they read on the Internet.”