Evaluation of websites providing online psychological counseling services in compliance with ethical standards in Türkiye

The increasing demand for online psychological counseling has led to the development of numerous websites and mobile applications to offer this service. However, conducting psychological counseling services in a new environment has also raised various ethical concerns. In this regard specifically, the extent to which websites offering online psychological counseling services comply with ethical principles and standards, as well as the competence of the professionals providing services on these sites, remain unclear. In this context, the aim of the present study is to examine the current state of websites offering online psychological counseling services and their compliance with ethical principles. The research was conducted using a case study design, a qualitative research method. During the data collection process, a total of 265 websites were identified that met the inclusion criteria through searches using predetermined keywords. These websites were divided into two groups: 141 sites with multiple mental health professionals and 124 sites with only one. Information on a total of 2,878 mental health professionals (psychological counselors, psychologists, or psychiatrists) was obtained across all examined websites. To assess the ethical compliance of websites, a 31-item checklist was developed based on national and international ethical guidelines (ACA, APA, NBCC, TPD and Türk PDR-DER), and existing literature and each website were evaluated individually according to this checklist. Findings revealed that among the categories in the ethical evaluation list, the highest ethical compliance was in the "competence" category, while the lowest was in the "psychological measurement and evaluation" category. However, the vast majority of websites were found not to fully reflect all the items on the evaluation list. In conclusion, this study reveals that the level of ethical compliance in websites offering online psychological counseling services is generally inadequate. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the need for websites offering this service to be reviewed based on ethical principles and to include sufficient information to inform clients.