Social Networking websites, promoting bad influences

Theme: Positive and Negative effects on the New Media
• Social Networking websites, promoting bad influences
From: Channel NewsAsia
Text: 23 July 2009
Article: Thin is in for Singapore youth

Note: This article has been edited to include important information
For the whole story, read here:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/lifestylenews/view/444240/1/.html

SINGAPORE : Fauzi Rassull is a slim 20-year-old blogger, popular among Singapore's fashionable youngsters, who flaunts his 1.73-metre, 60kg frame in glamour shots splashed on his sites.
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is behind a worrying spike in the number of people developing eating disorders.
"I don't see myself as thin, I don't think I'm thin now," he insisted, saying he was aiming to cut his weight down to 53kg.
Fauzi's dream weight would put him below the healthy range of the Body Mass Index (BMI) system used in many countries to measure fat.
At that weight, Fauzi, who does not hold a regular job and sells ads on his blog, would be risking "nutritional deficiency diseases and osteoporosis" based on the BMI scale of the Singapore Health Promotion Board, a government agency.
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Singapore is no exception, with the Eating Disorders Programme of the Singapore General Hospital reporting five new cases a month. Many other cases are handled by private clinics.
Singapore has a resident population of just 3.64 million, of whom 13.4 percent belong to the 15 to 24 age category, the demographic most susceptible to the disorder, according to psychiatrist Ken Ung.
"I think that the eating disorders are sort of a novelty, curiosity, so they are fairly popular to young people," said Ung, who has studied anorexia for years.
He disapproves of websites and blogs such as Fauzi's due to their influence among the young. "These sites should be taken down, definitely it is harmful to that small vulnerable minority that will be influenced," he said.
Popular social networking site Facebook apparently shared the same sentiments.
Fauzi said his 900-strong Facebook group - "Get Thin or Die Trying" - saw a spike in membership before it was taken down by site administrators in April this year.
He was also issued a warning and refused permission to start a new Facebook group after repeated attempts. In a copy of the warning sent to Fauzi, Facebook said the site does not allow "groups that are hateful, threatening or obscene."
But Fauzi, who is also the creator of "The Thinspo Club" on Facebook's rival social networking site Friendster, said all he was trying to do was gather like-minded individuals to share slimming tips. "I just want Singaporeans to lead a healthy lifestyle as well," he said.
Lee Huei Yen, the director of the Eating Disorders Programme, was sceptical of Fauzi's diet. "The diet does not sound healthy and balanced and this person may possibly have an eating disorder," she said.
A freelance model, Braberry Paula Elizabeth, also expressed concern over Fauzi's slimming obsession.
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- AFP/ir