Chat Rooms
Chat room - An interactive, online discussion about a specific topic that is hosted on the Internet. Chat rooms are set up to handle group discussions, and everyone sees what everyone else types in, although two people can decide to break off and have their own chat.
Examples: Yahoo Chatroom, Create your own room - Meebo
Most chat rooms are set at a certain time where members all log on at the same time to chat. The bereavement facilitator would act as the group moderate to lead the discussion and keep the conversation on track. A chat room is most likely to be used in place of an in-person support group meeting or offered on an alternating week-off from meetings to keep members in touch.
Benefits for using: Adolescents may feel more comfortable discussing their feelings over the Internet than in person (Harris Interactive Survey, 2006) and it potentially allows adolescents who cannot get to meetings to be able to participate in a discussion.
Concerns for using: The only thing that is changing from an in-person support group to a chat room is the more anonymous environment and eliminates the issues of transportation complications; but requiring teens to be online at a certain time may still run into the same problems such as lacking of computer access and scheduling conflicts at the time of the meeting. In a situation where two siblings are participating in group, only one of them would be able to logon unless the family had more than one computer. There's also always a risk using a third-party chat room two teens will break off and have their own discussion via instant messaging.
How much control does one have: You can monitor the conversation but you cannot prevent teens from saying what they want at the time, but having a chat in real time allows you to correct inappropriate statements immediately if someone says something out-of-line. Setting up rules ahead of time for expectations will help keep problems at bay. However, if two teens break off to discuss privately through instant message, you will not be able to monitor the conversation at all.
What are security and privacy concerns: Using a public chat room anyone can enter into may put adolescents at risk of coming in contact with people that could be dangerous, but having an IT set up an environment can also be risky. Hackers are great at breaking into code. Finding a strong third-party program (such as Meebo) and passing out a password for only group members is a cheaper possibility but may be more risky, and having an IT person create a password entry chat room where group members are assigned a login name is a safer possibility that will be most costly and time consuming (ChatDanger, 2008). The fewer people that know about it, the less likely it is to get hacked, so only tell your group members and their families about the chat room (perhaps by email or a letter, not on the agency website for everyone to see).
What are legality concerns: Check with your agency what their policy is to be in contact with teens online. Most agencies do not allow Internet communications so policies may need to be updated and protocol may need to be create for online discussions. Always keep records of the conversations with clients either by saving emails or printing and saving them in a locked file at the office for documentation purposes.
Time management: Chat rooms only have to be monitored when a chat is going on, so this out of all the forum options is the least time consuming, but is also the least available options for teens to have interaction with bereavement support online.
Additional Resources for Chat Room Safety:
Next: Message Boards