Why Kurbo, and Weight Watchers for kids, is dangerous

About a month ago, Weight Watchers (recently rebranded as simply ‘WW’) announced a free app for kids called Kurbo. The company claims it is “a scientifically-proven behavior change program designed to help kids and teens ages 8-17 reach a healthier weight, derived from Stanford University's Pediatric Weight Control Program.”

In reality, it is taking advantage of children’s use of smartphones to get them into the diet industry sooner than ever.

An app, and way of thinking, like this poses so many dangers to children. By making them focus on what they’re eating and grading their food on a moral scale using a traffic light system: green is “good,” “yellow” is moderate, and red is “bad.” Instead of letting kids be kids, the app encourages them to log their food choices; for a fee, kids can schedule monthly sessions with coaches via the app, mostly to check on their emotional health throughout the journey, but ostensibly to also continue to promote weight loss goals.

Encouraging intentional weight loss, in anyone, is detrimental in both mind and body. It is dangerous. The diet (and beauty, to an extent) industry, is designed to make people feel badly enough about themselves in order to spend more money on “fixing” their problems. By making kids as young as 8 years old feel bad about their bodies, what good are we promoting?

I discussed this problematic company and app with Refinery29:

“Promoting dieting behaviors in children can lead to those same children developing eating disorders, poor self-esteem, and many other mental and physical health issues,” Sami Main, a life coach who focuses on wellness and nutrition, tells Refinery29. “It's dangerous to promote dieting behavior in children; an app like this can easily lead to kids fearing food and fearing weight gain for years to come.”

Weight is not something to be feared. Food is not something to be feared. It’s those fears that can lead to a life of insecurity, eating disorders, and so many other health problems.

If you’ve considered using a diet program like Weight Watchers either for yourself or for your child, I urge you to reconsider. No one should be made to feel bad about their body; there’s a way to heal your relationship with food, if you’ve come to distrust it, but that problem shouldn’t be passed down to our future generations.