Eating disorders among young people are soaring amid fears social media platforms are failing to clamp down on scores of pro-anorexia pages.

Childline today reveals that the number of calls regarding eating disorders has jumped by 22 per cent in the space of just one year.

Between 2017 and 2018, the equivalent of 16 calls a day were made to the NSPCC helpline by distressed youngsters battling crippling illnesses such as anorexia and bulimia.

The number of children phoning for help as they battle eating disorders is on the rise as charities accuse social media of failing to tackle problematic encouragement spread online

The organisation conducted 5,934 counselling sessions on the topic – with 177 callers aged under 11. Beat, the charity which supports sufferers, warned social media was fuelling the problem by failing to take down pro- anorexia pages showing young people looking disturbingly thin with captions such as ‘Lovely #starving #anorexiatips’.

One recovering anorexic, turned campaigner, Hope Virgo, 28, from London, said pro-anorexia pages online ‘fuelled’ her eating disorder. She said: ‘As my illness developed I looked at them more and more…

‘With anorexia it is really competitive so people would always share pictures of things like grabbing their wrists with their hands [to show how small they are].’

Miss Virgo’s experience comes as between 2017 and 2018, the equivalent of 16 calls a day were made to Childline by youngsters battling illnesses such as anorexia and bulimia.

One anorexia survivor told researchers pro-eating disorder pages spread by social media gave her encouragement to stop eating

Within 12 months, the organisation conducted 5,934 counselling sessions on the topic – with 177 callers aged under 11. Over the same period, 11,752 phoned about mental health issues more widely, while also mentioning eating disorders or eating-related problems during the session.

Web giants are leaving a daily reel of ‘worrying’ images on their sites, Beat warned

Sites such as Facebook-owned Instagram and Twitter must be monitoring the ‘harmful content’ around the clock, campaigners said.

In one call to Childline a 13-year-girl said: ‘I think I might be addicted to pro ana (pro anorexia) sites. I just find them so reassuring as it’s nice to know that I’m not the only person who hates the way they look and who restricts their food intake.’

Instagram said encouraging anorexia, bulimia or other eating disorders violates its community guidelines. Pages promoting this will receive a warning and then be shut down.