Adolescent Eating Disorder Risk and the Online World.

The proliferation of social media and rapid increase in the use of the Internet by adolescents generates new dynamics and new risks for the development and maintenance of eating disorders. Here, the authors review different types of online content and how they are relevant to eating disorders within different theoretic frameworks, before examining the empirical evidence for the risks posed by online content in the development and maintenance of eating disorders. They describe pro-eating disorder content specifically and examine the research related to it, before considering its implications, and considering directions for future research, and prevention and intervention strategies.