Brisbane

It seems as modern life becomes faster there are more pressures on young people. Recent epidemiological studies in Australia have found that adolescent mental health issues are an important public health problem (Sawyer et al., 2001). These problems are often manifested in the classroom. As many as one in five Australian children aged from four to 17 have significant mental health concerns (Zubrick, Silburn, Burton & Blair, 2000). Many of these young people turn to counselling services to help them cope. In 2002 almost 1.1 million phone calls were made to Kids Help Line. However, many boys and young men do not seek help as often as girls and young women (Kids Help Line, 2003a). Yet young men in Australia have poorer educational outcomes, more incarceration, illness and completed suicides than young women (Sawyer et al., 2001). One possible way of overcoming boys ’ reluctance to seek help could be offering them the opportunity for a more anonymous form of counselling such as cybercounselling in a school setting. The possibilities and perils of school-based webcounselling are discussed in terms of training, therapeutic, ethical and legal issues