Critical Ethical Issues in Online Counseling: Assessing Current Practices With an Ethical Intent Checklist

The authors used a 16‐item Ethical Intent Checklist, developed from the American Counseling Association's (1999) Ethical Standards for Internet Online Counseling, to assess the current practices of 88 online counseling Web sites. Results showed fewer than half of online counselors were following the accepted practice on 8 of the 16 items. Online counselors who identified themselves as licensed or as association members had significantly higher mean checklist scores.