Internet gambling and pornography: illustrative examples of the psychological consequences of communication anarchy

Two areas of Internet behavior, gambling and pornography distribution, are examined for what they reveal about the profound social and psychological changes caused by recent advances in communication technology. The overview of these domains clearly shows that there will be an expected increase in people presenting for treatment with Internet behavior related difficulties, and that their treatment will be, at present, uninformed by any specific empirical research. These two domains are used as examples to illustrate how the Internet is creating a paradigm shift in the basic nature of an individual's relationships to local, state, and federal governments. It is no longer possible for people, even minors, to be fully protected by their governments from material deemed harmful by the community one lives in. This is demonstrated by a review of the current availability, in millions of homes nationwide, of the opportunity to experience Internet casino gambling and to acquire pornographic material not sold in United States adult bookstores. The psychological effect of the increased need for individual responsibility in the access to potentially harmful domains is not well understood at this time. This article is a call for the kind of basic research that will delineate the base rates for pathological involvement in online gambling and pornography, as a means of discovering the potential negative psychological consequences of the inability to regulate Internet content.