!French politicians have called for stiff penalties of up to three years in prison and heavy fines against "pro anorexia" websites and publications that encourage girls and young women to starve themselves.

"Giving young girls advice about how to lie to their doctors, telling them what kinds of food are easiest to vomit, encouraging them to torture themselves whenever they take any kind of food is not part of liberty of expression," Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said in a parliament speech...."
France makes it illegal for magazines and websites to encourage anorexia | the Daily Mail

good

I read about this and was intrigued to know how they were going to enforce the internet ban...

Hooray, but also wtf. Internet still = freedom of speech, surely? I mean, we are on a Courney site.

At least when I leer at Frenchy mags there won't be bones in them.

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Are they also gonna ban Mcdonalds ads for encouraging obesity? Probably not.

McDonalds ads don't send quite as direct a "you should be all fat" message as images of skeletal people do. I can't recall the last time I saw anyone in a Maccas ad who looked like they were in anything but the absolute best of shape.

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Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

thats even worse. at least the pro-anas are honest about what theyre doing. Food companies just deceive.

Their aim is not to make you fat. Their aim is to take your money, and they're pretty damn blatant about it. They couldn't give a fuck whether or not you are thin, normal, fatass, or other.

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

it doesnt matter, the fact is they DO make you fat.

Whether they do or don't, I think it's a different matter. Anything whatsoever encouraging people to eat could be linked in an obscure way to obesity. Plenty of people eat Maccas and are not fat, and do not get fat, and plenty of people are fat and never touch the stuff.

Promoting images of anorexic people as any kind of an ideal can be linked rather more clearly to advancing the idea that anorexia or similar conditions are in some way good.

Personally, back in the days when I ate McDonalds as often as I could [not that often], I was far thinner and fitter.

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Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot was just in time, I was just about to slit my throat to stop myself from eating

plenty of people are stick thin without being anorexic and some are anorexic while still being not so thin

You actually think food companies want people to be unhealthily fat? You don't think they're more motivated by, say, selling their product? The difference between McDonalds and pro-ana sites is that the latter's message simply cannot be interpreted any other way.

And besides, McDonalds don't promote obesity any more than any other restaurant. Less so in fact, since they're obliged to tell you what's in all their food, something that most restaurants aren't. And they don't "make you fat". Consuming their food in unhealthy amounts makes you fat, but there are health implications of any food eaten as the entirety of an unvaried diet.

Why are you trying so hard to defend pro-ana sites? Because that's what you're doing, by equating them to something that's comparatively so much more innocuous.

Back on topic, this is terrible news. Women everywhere will take this as a cue to get out the fork and stampede to the cake shop. The world will become even more of a hell-hole of dumpy fat girls

Personally, I blame Nibiru.

So what constitutes breaking the French law on the internet? operating from a French IP? being a citizen of France? I'm all for the battle against anorexia but resorting to taking away our right to free speech just isn't good policy. Censorship is necessary to a certain extent in the case of young children whose minds are developing. but people who encourage anorexia on the internet tend to be well past that stage. Pro-ana website are where the wanabes are at anyway. The majority of people on these websites tend to treat anorexia as a way of life rather than a mental disorder and that's evidenced in the very fact that they "encourage" it. In my own personal experience, the media was definitely not a main trigger for my eating disorder. The French authorities might as well just ask the anorexics nicely to recover, for all the good this will do. It's not worth the injustice.

How would they determine if a pro-ana blog lead to an actual death? I'd assume that death by anorexia would be caused by more than one blog. WILL THEY CHECK IE HISTORY/FAVORITES?

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Cheeseburger lips!

More to the point, how will they determine which sites are seriously promoting anorexia, and which sites are just doing it for the lulz?

From the "Quote Anything" thread:

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
--Eleanor Roosevelt

I know. We're seriously relying on the French to make these decisions?

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

Fun fact: Eleanor Roosevelt was FDR's fifth cousin, and has the same married and maiden name.