KATV Channel 7 - The Spirit of Arkansas: Facebook Bad For Girls

If you've ever worried about the time your teenage daughter spends on Facebook, your instincts were probably right.  New research from the University of Haifa reports that the more time adolescent girls spend in front of Facebook, the higher their chances are of developing a negative body image and an eating disorder.  Some teens say once they log onto the social networking website, they are sucked into the drama that plays out on a daily basis.  That drama combined with the images girls post of themselves online can be a bad combination.  When the unrealistic beauty images represented in the media are added in, girls end up trying to achieve the unattainable.  Many girls admit to experimenting with anorexia and bulimia in an effort to achieve those images.  Experts say parents need to monitor the time their teens spend online.  They say they also need to emphasize from an early age that it is what is going on the inside of a person that matters... not what is happening on the outside.  If your teenagers value themselves for their internal qualities, they are less likely to succumb to the pitfalls of trying to achieve an unnatural appearance.