New Technology Helps Create Personal "Accountability" To Curb Online Addictions

Online, March 22, 2011 (Newswire.com) - (Gardner, Kansas) - It is being called an online accountability and parental awareness program that helps people address online addictions -- from the inside out. Saavi Accountability is a new technology designed to curb online addictions like no other online monitoring or blocking software ever has. That's because Saavi Accountability doesn't block or restrict online access, and doesn't rely on technology as the main solution. Instead, Saavi Accountability relies equally on the person and his/her relationships to increase accountability, which in turn reduces online temptations and addictions.

Saavi Accountability users make the decision to solve the addiction themselves and install the software on their computer. It is not something that is done "to" them; it is collaborative software instead of spyware, installed "with" their cooperation, understanding and support. The software assists by notifying an "accountability partner" (a parent, spouse, friend or trusted counselor) when questionable browsing takes place or if there are attempts to circumvent the software. Saavi Accountability records and reports when a person has regressed to the addictive behavior. The software increases a person's sense of accountability and works to reduce the desire for the addiction. It helps users resist temptation, not just avoid it. The longer the user can resist, the easier it becomes to resist, so he/she can have occasions of exposure and still not regress.

This unique program was designed by a young man who candidly admits to being affected by addictive online behavior himself. "I developed Saavi Accountability because I realized that this was an issue that myself and so many of my peers struggled with," says Saavi President(?)Justen Wack, who began working on the technology while still a student at Mid-America Nazarene University in Kansas City. "Online pornography, excessive gaming and online gambling, these habits can start pretty young in a child, develop into addictions into adulthood, and in many cases adversely affect lives, careers and families." Wack says online monitoring products on the market avoid the underlying problem of the addiction. "Avoidance of content online is not an option--it is too prevalent to avoid. Software like that is nothing more than a band-aid," says Wack.

Saavi Accountability was designed with help from leading therapists to help remove the desire for the addictive behaviors. The typical model for overcoming addictions uses a 12-step process that relies heavily on total avoidance. "One of the biggest barriers to recovery, for sexual addictions, is not having the opportunity to be able to practice or be able to stop yourself voluntarily," says Todd M. Frye, PhD, LCPC, LCMFT. "This is what Saavi provides, the opportunity to make a choice." Therapist Todd Bowman, PhD, LPC, agrees. "Rather than putting a filter in place that inhibits conversation, Saavi Accountability opens the door for new levels of conversation to take place."

Saavi Accountability is a pay-as-you-go subscription service. It cost $9 per month for up to four computers concurrently..

For more information go to: https://saaviaccountability.com/
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