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Don't get the message: the effect of a warning text before visiting a proanorexia website
Carolien Martijn1, Elke Smeets, Anita Jansen
1Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Universiteit Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands. c.martijn@psychology.unimaas.nl
Objective:
This study examined the effect of the placement of a warning text before visiting proanorexia websites on actual access of these websites.
Method:
A separate webpage with a warning text aiming at first-time visitors was placed before each proanorexia website hosted by a Dutch Internet provider. During the research period of 1 year, the numbers of hits at the warning webpage were registered together with the numbers of hits at the underlying proanorexia website.
Results:
Of the total number of hits registered at the warning webpage, about two-third of the visitors were registered at the underlying proanorexia website. This indicates that about one-third of the visitors did not continue their visit to a proanorexia website after being exposed to the warning text.
Discussion:
Placement of a warning text before proanorexia websites appears a promising strategy in holding back potential visitors.
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