PRO-ANOREXIC websites which persuade young women to starve themselves could face punishment under new French proposals.
The French National Assembly will next week discuss bringing in a law to offer jail sentences of up to three years and 45,000 (£35,700) fines to anyone encouraging others to slim to the point of death.
It comes after the campaign headed by anorexi
c French model Isabelle Caro, 27, who appeared in a controversial advertisement showing her skeletal frame during Milan fashion week last autumn.
There has been a huge backlash across Europe against pro-anorexic websites.
Now Valerie Boyer, a French politician, has brought a motion to drive the sites out of action and deter others from setting them up.
It is hoped the law would deter fashion houses from using very thin models to promote their clothes.
British anorexia support groups will be looking at the proposals to see if similar legislation should be brought forward in this country.
Ms Boyer proposes jail sentences of up to two years and £23,800 fines for anyone who persuades a person to lose weight excessively enough to "compromise their health".
In extreme cases, where the sites can be shown to have led to the actual death of an anorexic the punishment would increase to up to three years' jail and £35,700.
Ms Boyer introduced the proposals at a press conference organised by the ministry of health and they will be discussed by the national assembly on 15 April.
She said anorexia was being promoted by "magazines, internet sites and blogs". Judicial and penal sanctions were the only way to fight these abuses, she said.
But Gerard Apfeldorfer, a French psychiatrist, said: "There is a difference between incentive to 'go on a diet' and to encourage anorexia. Anorexia is a mental illness, often caused by imitation. But I am not sure the best way to prevent the disease is to put pressure on the advertising and fashion magazines."
But he hoped it would persuade current sites to operate within the new law.
It is thought there are 30,000 to 40,000 young women affected by anorexia in France.
The full article contains 367 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
