London - Twitter and other networking websites are fuelling a rise in eating disorders among teenagers as they share photos of girls looking dangerously thin, experts warn.
The number of those aged 13 to 19 being admitted to hospital with anorexia and bulimia has doubled in three years from 915 in 2011 to 1,815 in 2014.
Specialists warn that the number receiving treatment and counselling outside hospital has risen at a similar pace.
Psychiatrists say young girls in particular are becoming obsessed with achieving the perfectly toned body after sharing photographs of themselves and other excessively skinny youngsters and swapping tips on social networking websites.
The girls use constant updates on the websites from other users as “motivation” to achieve the perfect body, which can lead to them becoming “terrified” of certain foods, experts claim.
The culture of posting the perfect selfie to a social media account means many teenagers now doctor their photographs to create a slimmer image of themselves.
Dr Carolyn Nahman, a consultant psychiatrist at Newbridge House eating disorder treatment centre in Sutton Coldfield, and spokesperson for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “We’re increasingly concerned about the pressure of social media.
“With one click of a button, very vulnerable young people are able to access 10 000 images of ‘perfect-looking’ people, which places them under a lot of pressure.
“Young people who look at these images often develop body-image dissatisfaction because they’re constantly comparing themselves to these perfect images.
“This is a risk factor for disordered eating and more serious eating disorders which can prove fatal.”
Links called hashtags on social media websites allow users to follow certain trends, with terms such as #fitspiration’ or ‘#thighleggap’ – a reference to the space some women have between their thighs which has become a mark of attractiveness to many teenagers.
Eating disorder specialist Dr Alex Yellowlees, medical director at the Priory Group clinic in Glasgow, said editing software such as Photoshop was used to doctor images to make models look thinner.
He added: “One aspect of social media is having a devastating effect on young girls and their self-confidence and body image. Teens often look at lots of images on the internet, many of them Photoshopped.
“They inevitably compare themselves to them and want to copy them. Girls have gone from excessively comparing themselves to their mirror reflection, to downloading images of unhealthily thin girls.
“The ability to take pictures of themselves and compare them or look endlessly at high-resolution images of very thin women can have a malignant effect on girls.
“This massive pressure on them can be dangerous.”
One in 20 people in Britain have an eating disorder, the most common being anorexia and bulima.
Anorexics starve themselves, while bulimics go through a constant cycle of bingeing on calorie-laden foods then purging by making themselves sick or using laxatives. The mortality rate is the highest for all mental illnesses.
Professor John Morgan, chair of the Faculty of Eating Disorders at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said social media was putting “huge pressures” on teenagers to mature – and become attractive – more quickly. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, he added: “Many of my patients are using social media pathologically and it reinforces their beliefs.” But he said treatments for eating disorders had become “very effective”.
The eating-disorder charity Beat said pro-anorexia websites where users swap tips on extreme dieting also fuelled the problem, adding: “Anything that encourages someone with an eating disorder to believe it is just a lifestyle choice and not a serious, often fatal illness is potentially very dangerous.”
The news comes after Yves Saint Laurent was banned this week from using an advert featuring a stick-thin model.
Daily Mail