Pro anorexia sites and dangerous 'motivational' photos have been a problem online for years, and with the increased popularity of social networking sites, it can be tough to put a clamp down on the potentially dangerous material being shared online.
Despite efforts to ban this material on social media sites, like Tumblr and Pinterest, more pro-anorexia blogs and photos are emerging on Instagram, as 'thinspiration,' under the hash tag 'thinspo.'
The pro-anorexia community online garnered national attention when groups began posting motivational photos of anorexic women, weight loss tips and quotes for extreme dieting on Tumblr.

The photos then began to appear on Pinterest, prompting both social networks to create a policy against the promotion of anorexia or bulimia, and also banning photos involving self-harm.

Now, the content has moved to Instagram, with over 30,000 photos under the hash tag '#thinspo,' 12,000 under 'thinspiration' and 13,000 under 'ana,' which is short for anorexia.
So far, Instagram has not addressed the issue of the 'thinspiration' photos on its site, however community guidelines do outline moral standards to uphold.
Groups like the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) have spearheaded efforts with Facebook to remove the content along with countering the 'thinspo' and 'thinspiration' hash tags with .