What Impact Have Pro-ana Sites Been Able To Create?

From the moment pro-ana websites popped up across the Internet, they have managed to make substantial impact. While the impact was strong in the initial days of their appearance, it has waned over the subsequent years.

Until the pro-ana websites appeared, people were used to seeing websites that talked only of the dangers of anorexia. However, now they got to see a different version, where people were actually supporting these disorders. Many of these websites claimed that anorexia was in fact a lifestyle choice, and not a disorder.
The impact was in two radically opposite dimensions. In some cases it was fear, causing parents to become stricter in the regulation of their children's Internet activities. Generally, people were on alert, and of the belief that these sites were bad news and should be dealt with accordingly, with extreme caution.

Some people reacted at the other extreme. They actually believed that anorexia was just what these websites claimed it was – a lifestyle choice. Fortunately, that belief has eroded over time, with more and more scientific revelations about the very real health risks that anorexia brought with it.