Member-only story
Weight Watchers May Be Exploiting Vulnerable Kids With Its Weight Loss App
Kurbo doesn’t require rigorous screening for weight loss coaches — and more problems
On first impression, Weight Watchers’ Kurbo app, geared toward kids ages 8 to 17, looks friendly, cute, and simple. But then… wait, this is a weight loss app for kids! Suddenly, the same things that made it friendly, cute, and simple make it nauseating.
And I wasn’t the only person to think so.
Laypeople and health professionals on Twitter hashtagged #kurbokills and #wakeupweightwatchers to organize their outrage. A Change.org petition asking Weight Watchers (recently rebranded as WW) to remove the app now has nearly 110,000 signatories.
Even the National Eating Disorders Association issued a statement:
“Asking kids to closely monitor and self-report everything they eat through an app with no in-person monitoring by a medical professional presents grave risks, including eating disorders, disordered eating and a potential lifetime of weight cycling and poor body image.”
Studies (1, 2) and news reports (1, 2) have found that diet apps pose a risk of creating or worsening poor dietary habits, especially in relation to eating disorders. If this is the case for adults, how would an app affect kids?
This isn’t the first attempt by WW to try and put young people on a diet by way of an app. In February, as Time reported, the company offered Weight Watchers for free to teens. And in the face of that criticism, the site reported, Weight Watchers doubled down.
All of this made me curious, so I downloaded the app and dove in.
