Urgent warning to parents over sick TikTok & Instagram pages that ‘coach’ kids into having eating disorders

AN URGENT warning has been issued to parents over sick TikTok and Instagram pages that coach kids into having eating disorders.

Social media pages are teaching teenagers how to develop unhealthy relationships with food, using a technique called “meanspo”.

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Parents are being warned over social media pages that teach kids about eating disorders[/caption]

TikTok

TikTok

Deluded strangers are purposely making young people feel bad and lose all confidence so that they don’t eat – and lose weight.

The online freaks rally together to torment children by calling them fat and disgusting – among other jibes, according to the Mirror.

Some social media accounts will leave advice such as: “Look how fat your thighs are… stuff those chubby fingers down your throat and purge for me.”

Eating disorders come in many different forms and it’s thought that around 1.25 million Brits suffer with one.

Parents are told to look out for signs in their kids such as making rules about what they eat, picking a restricted range of foods or having negative self-image.

The feral online abuse has triggered complaints to eating disorder charity Beat.

The charity’s Tom Quinn said: “It’s shocking meanspo coaching and distressing pro-eating disorder content is so readily available.

“We know from the people we support that urging them to engage in extreme weight loss techniques and eating disorder behaviours can worsen symptoms for somebody who is unwell and make recovery more difficult.

“It can also contribute to an eating disorder developing for someone who is already vulnerable.”

A record number of youngsters are receiving treatment for eating disorders, recent NHS figures have revealed.

Nearly 10,000 under-18s started being helped between April and December 2021 — a jump of a quarter on the year before.

Tanith Carey, author of ‘What’s My Teenager Thinking? Practical Child Psychology for Modern Parents’ said one way to help your child is to eat with them.

She explained: “Research has found that kids are more likely to have a healthy attitude to eating if they have family mealtimes together at least three times a week. 

“Encourage them to cook with you too.  This gives kids a chance to see food as a pleasure to be shared.”