Anonymous Communications on the Internet

CASE TWO
CHATTING ONLINE ABOUT ADDICTION

A computer chat room has been set up by a non-profit counseling group to help people deal with various addictions. Participants and counselors can use their real first names only or choose pseudonyms. Neither the counselors nor the other participants know whether real names or pseudonyms are used. The site declares in a very visible location that counselors are fully committed to protecting the privacy of all participants. Their primary mission is to offer participants help in recognizing their problems with the hope that they will eventually seek personal care for their addictions. The notice also states that participants are expected to respect each other’s privacy interests and to act in a way that preserves the integrity of the counseling sessions.

Six participants and four counselors rotate through the conversations in the chat room. Two of the participants are addicted to smoking, one to cocaine, two are alcoholics, and one is a heavy gambler. During the course of several sessions, the following is revealed:

The cocaine addict is using whatever financial resources she can find to feed her habit. In the process, she is apparently neglecting her 18-month old child, who may be suffering from physical symptoms visible at birth due to the effects of his mother’s cocaine use.

One of those addicted to alcohol admits that he often drives after too many drinks. He has been arrested in the past for driving while intoxicated, and had his license suspended for a year. He is now able to drive again, but worries about the possibility of causing an accident that might lead to the injury of others.

The compulsive gambler reveals that he is a police officer assigned to head a drug interdiction unit. He is concerned that drug dealers will learn of his gambling habit and use that information to blackmail him into "looking the other way" when they do their business.

Scenario I

One of the participants is outraged that the cocaine-addicted mother is neglecting her child and urges her to seek help from local resources immediately. If not, she threatens to call her local social services agency and police to report the mother. She has saved all of the chat room exchanges on her harddrive. How should the counselors respond to her threat?

Scenario II

Another participant is appalled that the alcoholic is planning to drive after drinking. He lost a sister to an accident caused by excessive drinking by the driver of the car in which she was a passenger. He demands that the participant reveal his/her true identity and location so that the counselors can notify authorities in that locale to "prevent an accident waiting to happen." How should the counselors respond?

Scenario III

The counselors themselves are deeply troubled with the police officer’s dilemma. Based on the exchanges that have occurred in the chat room, they are not persuaded that he would be able to stand up to the possibility of extortion by drug dealers. They urge him to seek a less vulnerable position within the police department while counseling continues. He states that to do so would expose him to questions about his commitment to the force and derail his progression through the ranks. So far, he has been able to hide his addiction from friends and colleagues. He just wants more time. What should the counselors do?

Additional Discussion Questions

What kinds of problems do such on-line counseling services create for themselves (and perhaps for those they counsel as well) by offering participants the opportunity to remain anonymous or to chose a pseudonym? How critical is it that such options be offered?
What options are available to the counselors when participants in the chat room chastise other participants and demand that the counselors "take action"? How is such behavior likely to affect the counseling process for the different participants?
Would it be professionally acceptable for the counselors to "remove" a participant from the chat room if he/she is disruptive? What guidelines should be in place? What are a counselor’s obligations, if any, to such participants?
What responsibilities do the counselors have to intervene by informing appropriate authorities of the types of situations described in the three scenarios? Should they be held accountable for "failure to warn" or to intervene if they are unable to identify the parties at risk to themselves or to others? If so, how can accountability be assured if the participants in the chat room conversation cannot identify the relevant counselors?
Assuming that participants live in widely-separated locations, if any of these scenarios became the subject of a lawsuit to which the counselors were a party, which jurisdiction’s laws should apply?

This case was prepared by staff at the American Association for the Advancement of Science as part of a project on "Anonymous Communications on the Internet: Uses and Abuses" (see http://www.aaas.org/spp/anon), funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. This case may be downloaded and used for educational purposes.

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