If anyone thought that The Malta Independent was overstating the dangers of the internet in promoting eating disorders, then one might simply want to turn on the television.

Young girls are particularly at risk, they are conditioned from a very young age and made to believe that if they are not rake thin, and do not make themselves up at every opportunity, then they are an ugly specimen.

And it is not only the internet. Every night of the week, one can turn on their television and watch programmes about celebrities that willingly become anorexic or bulimic to become slimmer.

The problem is that they do not become slimmer. They actually become bony, flat-chested and gaunt, their skin loses elasticity and some literally begin to look like walking skeletons – frail, ill, weak and sadly – repulsive.

Again, continue watching the programmes and you will see how celebs condition youngsters by going back down to a size 8 from a size 12 or 14 merely weeks after giving birth. They do it by sticking to liquid diets and pushing their bodies to the brink of collapse, making themselves ill and damaging their bodies and internal organs beyond repair. They will die young – or age very prematurely. That is the inspiration which young girls turn to – and make no mistake – young Maltese girls are as cosmopolitan as girls in any other country. They have been brainwashed too.

It is very sad, but indeed very true. The first thing we must remember is that the youngsters we are dealing with here are mentally ill. Getting thinner becomes an addiction, and even when the body has started to eat into itself and the transformation becomes more profound, they still think they look fat and must lose more weight.

What is indeed worrying is that the issue of eating disorders has not been included in kids’ Personal and Social Development Curriculum. It should be, and it should be addressed quick smart, today before tomorrow. We understand that there are many pressing matters within government, but just as we have tried to address age-old problems of domestic violence, money lending, drug abuse, gambling addiction and many others, we must tackle eating disorders and we must do it from a different angle.

Sitting these kids down and telling them that they must eat simply does not cut it. They need specialist psychiatric treatment AND we must tackle their severe lack of self esteem.

This newspaper carried out the very painful exercise of trawling through websites, web forums, chat rooms and the like to gain an insight into the very secretive world that these young people create.

It is not easy to see the full extent of the problem, simply because they shut you out, you must be a member and a proven ‘ana’ or ‘mia’ to log in. But the quotes we saw, the distorted and twisted view these kids have about their weight is heart-wrenching to say the least.

Cyberspace is unregulated and difficult for some parents to get a grasp of. Perhaps the key of where we might start from is not sufferers themselves, but to educate parents and to highlight the symptoms – whether physical or behavioural – of eating disorders. There are plenty of skinny kids out there who are naturally that way, but there are surely hundreds who are starving themselves to have, what is in their mind, the perfect body.