Pinterest Criticized for Enabling Pro-Anorexia ‘Thinspo’ Boards
Photo: Pinterest
A Pinterest board.
Pinterest may be the latest obsession of the fashion world—who doesn’t love looking at pretty pictures of clothes?—but it’s recently been faced with serious criticism over some less savory boards.
Jezebel reports that the inspiration board website has been particularly popular among the pro-ana—that would be pro-anorexia—community, offering hundreds of re-pinnable images of incredibly thin, unhealthy women tagged as “thinspo,” slang for “thinspiration.”
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According to the National Eating Disorders Association’s (NEDA) Claire Mysko, the site is appealing to pro-ana young women and men because users are anonymous but can be highly visible, the site is very visual and interactive, and it offers them an instant community.
Tumblr and Facebook have enlisted the help of NEDA to ban so-called “self-harm” materials, though Pinterest has yet to create or enforce any conditions monitoring or banning such images.
What do you think: should Pinterest be more proactive in its user policies to stop pro-anorexia images?
