The Internet and social networking are offering a number of new clinical and ethical challenges for those who provide face-to-face mental health services. These challenges include extra-therapeutic contacts between therapists and their clients, questions about what distinguishes personal and professional activities online, and a lack of clearly developed policies related to our online behaviors and interactions. No form of client communication is 100 percent guaranteed to be private. Conversations can be overheard, e-mails can be sent to the wrong recipients and phone conversation can be listened to by others.

             But in today's age of e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and other social media, psychologists have to be more aware than ever of the ethical pitfalls they can fall into by using these types of communication. "It's easy not to be fully mindful about the possibility of disclosure with these communications because we use these technologies so often in our social lives, " says Stephen Behnke, PhD, JD, director of APA's Ethics Office. "It's something that we haven't gotten into the habit of thinking about." ".

             The Monitor sat down with Behnke to discuss the ethical aspects of the Internet for psychology practitioners and how to think about them.

             Does the APA Ethics Code guide practitioners on social media?.

             Yes. The current Ethics Code was drafted between 1997 and 2002. While it doesn't use the terms "social media," Google or Facebook, the code is very clear that it applies to all psychologists' professional activities and to electronic communication, which of course social media is.

             As we look at the Ethics Code, the sections that are particularly relevant to social media are on privacy and confidentiality, multiple relationships and the section on therapy. The Ethics Code does not prohibit all social relationships, but it does call on psychologists to ask, "How does this particular relationship fit with the treatment relationship? ".