https://www.researchgate.net/publication/*******_7Cups'_Support_Services_A_Critical_Examination_of_the_Risks_and_Ethical_Concerns

It is a for profit system that relies on a supply of troubled individuals. This system exploits not only the members, it also exploits the free pool of listeners, which is the main selling point for the site that one has someone to talk to.

I) Member exploitation: They interact with group chats and listeners. Group chats are supposed to be moderated, they are but the moderators do nothing but to discourage religion talk or political talks, but anything else, however harmful that can go on, will go on. And they have a barrage of spammers, trollers which the site has not been able to address. In essence, the group chats are breeding ground for more emotional turbulence. However, at the start it might seem normal, but only with time the problems become very apparent and you can not unsee.

The listeners that the members are exposed to, most of them are untrained to deal with the emotional issues they are exposed to, they can not provide the help one needs. In many occasions, the listeners behave inappropriately causing the members more distress.

These factors do not hold back 7cups or upset them, as it goes to benefit their bottom line, which is pushing paid features to these troubled members; many of these troubles may sneakily get into people's lives right from the site! So, hey, an extra supply!

Ii) Listener exploitation: They are not provided with enough training, assistance and it is no wonder why most of them are not good at their assumed roles. And, 7cups is fully aware of this, which is why they are treated as second class helper, they here to provide a juxtaposition between paid listeners vs unpaid ones. If they wished for their listeners to provide better quality effort, it could not be a volunteer service. For a volunteer service, they ask too, too much from their listeners while giving too, too little back in return. And, many of these listeners are harmed in a very real sense, as these inexperienced listeners go on to deal with and exposed to troubling mental health problems, they may run into many emotional issues themselves, which is corroborated further by often encouraging listeners to get a member account!

7cups of tea is made from a place of greed, and with a front of wishing to be a place of harmony and help. But if you critically look at their operation, it is more than clear that they are not here to help, there are here to profit on your problems!

Like others, I started on 7Cups as a "Member": A few years back (early 2019), I was living an unstable, nomadic existence with no surviving family support and no close friends who truly understood my situation. The "Listeners" I talked to reminded me of outsourced callcenter agents. Better empathy could be channeled from a bot: In an attempt to understand my situation, it wasn't unusual for these "Listeners" to simply reiterate what I mentioned, or only reply with "sorry!" due to limited English comprehension.

When my personal stress started to cool (circa mid-2020), I decided to become a 7Cups "Listener" to pay it forward and relate to others in similar situations. Unfortunately, I was barking up the wrong tree with the second intention: 30% of individuals suffered from existing mental health issues (which should not be handled by an untrained layperson). Another 30% were bored attention-seeking trolls, and 30% on top of that complained about dysfunctional relationship drama (which also should only be handled by therapeutic mediators. Contrary to 7Cup's policies, there's no way to not give "advice" for relationship stress issues). All in all, only 10% of discussions were in scope with my chat topics, and there's no way to filter chat requests you didn't want to receive.

If you're being harassed by someone on 7Cups, nothing can be done about it. The so-called "Listener Support Room" consists of other Listeners only - not site admins. If you get blocked, censored, or eventually banned on 7Cups, the website will not give you a reason. This happened to me, and I can't think of any other justification apart from constructively going against the website's PC/WOKE grain. (I had a 100% positive Listener rating, BTW.)

If you're at a difficult impasse in your life, I recommend Warmline. You talk to someone who may not necessarily be a certified professional, but is compassionate, human, and lest we forget - local. I wish I knew about the Warmlines directory four years ago, and didn't waste so much time with 7Whoops.

I'm both a Listener and a Member, and I want to give you a view of what it's like for both sides, and why I don't reccomend either.

As a Member:
* The waiting time is not garuanteed, and you can sometimes spend hours waiting for someone to pick up your request. Or, you can be accepted by trolls and be Immediately blocked after your first message and be waiting ages for a response before realizing you've been blocked, which has happened to me before. There is also no cancel button once you've requested a listener, so if you have to leave and close the website, the Listener that ends up accepting your request will think they've been ghosted.

* Most Listeners are NOT helpful. In my own experience, I end up talking to more than 5 Listeners about the same issue before giving up, because most of them are not interested in my issue, They'd rather I shut up and give them a good review. A lot of Listeners I've spoken to give absolutely horrid, half-assed, unasked for advice before they even listen to my full situation. The *one* time - And I'm not exaggerating, it was only once - I actually did get quite a good Listener, they stopped responding mid-conversation and never got back to me. Another issue is that a lot of the Listeners don't have much time. I completely understand why, they have their own lives, but a lot of the topics people come to 7 Cups about are mental-health related, and some people need a lot more time than 30 minutes to be able to explain their situation and thoughts. Even when speaking to their "Verified Listeners", I found myself wondering how these people possibly became verified, because they were not any better at all.

As a Listener:

* We are not trained. At all. When signing up as a listener, the most you have to do is read a little text on why you shouldn't give advice, how to be empathetic, and that you should be engaged in the members situation. Then you get a quiz, which you can change your answer even after it quite literally gives you the correct answer, and thats it. In regards of people having a genuine crisis, the most we're told is "refer them to our therapy service" or "give them the hotlines on suicide.org!". There is no training on how to properly deal with people having a crisis, or even people in general, and quite literally anybody can be your listener. I've had quite a few people that I've been worried about because they were in actual dangerous situations, and I have no training from 7 Cups to help them with.

* The resources are not universal, and quite unhelpful to hand out to Members. I often get Members who aren't in the USA who need specific resources that I'm unable to give because I have none that are local / international, credible, and proven to be safe & helpful. It's quite disgraceful to see, because there are people from all over the world on 7 Cups, so such limited resources is disappointing.

* The merged block/report AKA "Block this Connection" button seems to be broken. First, going back to when I said I as a Member was blocked by a Listener before the conversation even started, I went to report them, but if someone has blocked you, you cannot block or report them back, and with the amount of trolls on this website, this is an appalling "feature". Secondly, when I do find myself needing to use the block/report button, I will select my reason and type in the neccesary details, but after submitting I'm always met with the same buffering smybol. I end up having to refresh the page as you're unable to do anything while this happens, and while the conversations do end up being blocked, there is never any confirmation to make sure that your report has gone through and will be investigated, not even an email!

* There are so many trolls. I've had a few, and they've been quite aggrivating to deal with, especially when despite me blocking and reporting them, I'm able to see the same user still requesting chats to go troll other Listeners in.

* The site is actually also kind of broken. After dealing with a troll, I started to question whether reports were actually reviewed and dealt with, so I went to a Listener group chat to ask some questions. It took me an hour to get the site to load the groupchats. The links wouldn't take me there, I wasn't able to find any contact information for any 7 Cups administrators or anything so I couldn't do that. I decided it wasn't worth talking after the hour.
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Even if I had none of what I just said above in mind, I can't help but see the site quite suspicious for a number of other reasons. When you search up 7 Cups, It quite literally comes up as "Free Online Therapist & Counselling". Which is blatantly untrue. None of the Listeners on 7 Cups are actual licensed and/or trained therapists or counsellors. It's very much clickbait for people who really need that service for free, and then when you get on the site and look at their "actual" therapists, it's $150 a month. Which, I suppose is in the cheaper realm, but when you advertise your site as "free therapy", $150 is expensive. It's a very disgusting and nasty tactic that makes me feel quite angry to think about, especially considering half of the people I've spoken to on the website as a Listener have told me that they're unable to even think about buying the therapy service because they don't have the money. In theory, 7 Cups could've been so good, but the people running it have done so carelessly and need to either rebuild the website with better staff, or shut it down.

I've been on 7cups for years. There are some good listeners there. But they are very few, probably because they have to endure a lot of perverted harassment. And every listener endures perverted harassment, not just the female listeners. I feel that 7cups isn't trying hard enough to protect listeners from perverted harassment.

Horror stories of male listeners may be quite common. But I've even come across some scary female listeners. One texted that she was a mother of a little girl. She then lured me onto a website away from 7cups (which is against 7cups community guidelines.) It was a private chat website where users have to pay money in order to share images, which was very very weird.

She then started to communicate very inappropriately, suggesting that I engage in a sadomasochistic carnal activity with her and that I should carnally abuse her daughter. All throughout the chat, I had to say "no" whenever she kept bringing up the topic of carnally "punishing her little brat." Maybe it was all an act to lure me into requesting photos, which would have meant paying the website or her but she was expressing fantasies that I clearly expressed discomfort about, so I think she was being very serious.

I felt so horrible after the chat. I connected with her on some other day and she lured me onto that other website again, breaking 7cups community guidelines. Now here's the sick part. Despite my report, she's actually still on 7cups! Not only that, but she is a high-ranking listener or moderator on 7cups! Despite my report, apparently nothing happened.

I quit being a listener because every time I sought support from fellow listeners, she would usually be one of the people offering such support. I just couldn't bring myaelf to continue volunteering in a community that accepted a mother who may be absuing her daughter for income. Her profile claims that she is a victim of domestic abuse, but that doesn't give her a license to endanger her child with sadomasochism or sell her child for money. She is not allowed to be a listener if she is abusing someone. And she should not be using 7cups if she doesn't have a healthy state of mind.

I've also come across two or more listeners who solicited money from me. After I refused to provide money, they mostly stopped communicating with me.

I've come across a female listener and member who expressed racism. One of them became a high-ranking or priviledged member on 7cups.

Recently I've discovered that 7cups may be affiliated with or promoting Pineapple Support and providing listening services for "bedroom" workers. Where I live, "bedroom" workers are illegal. And even in areas where they are legal, they can be engaging in illegal activity if they "lay in bed" with a "carnally transmitted infection."

https://www.7cups.com/p/pineapplesupport/?wla=pineSupport43

After discovering this, I started being more careful when visiting 7cups and reducing my visits. My past encounters with financially motivated listeners started to make more sense.

I personally am not comfortable having a private 1-to-1 chat with a "bedroom" worker, especially from my past experiences on 7cups. If 7cups is promoting or supporting such workers who are criminals in my city as well as very likely criminals in Glen Moriarty's potentially current home (allegedly California,) then I see no true safety or support in 7cups.

I hear listeners can even be in private chats with kids on 7cups by simply passing a background check. Since some countries don't criminalize bedroom workers, a kid can wind up in a 1-to-1 chat with a bedroom worker. Kids need their parent's consent before using 7cups, but their parents may readily give consent without knowing that 7cups is allegedly promoting or supporting bedroom workers.

There also seems to be a lot more females than males on 7cups. This could be natural. But as a male, I felt that I received less support simply for my gender. I've even come across listeners who blatantly share that they don't want to communicate with men. Heck, I won't be surprised if I came across a profile that read, "Please only contact me if you identify as White."

I have collaborated with this website for over five years, and I tried to help as many people as I could. I have always had great reviews to my work from members, but what I have seen from the inside deserves to be noted here. Ten examples:

1- I've seen Community Leaders literally joke about suicide, and Mods then deflecting the whole situation. I reported this to my superiors, and nothing was done.
2- I've seen significant bug reports being ignored for years. I reported this to my superiors, and nothing was done.
3- When I logged in as a Member, I tried to talk to random people, only to be, almost always, treated worse than a scolded dog. I reported this to my superiors, going as far as invited them to experiment themselves with the system and see what kind of response they got from Listeners, and nothing was done.
4- Some of my posts in the forum were deleted, only to have Mods approach me and offer to discuss the situation in private, hinting I couldn't do it in public. I reported this to my superiors, and nothing was done.
5- I've seen a cult-like system between some members, who gladly upvote each other's posts all the time and submit fake positive reviews here. I reported this to my superiors, and nothing was done.
6- I've literally read reports of Listeners telling others "Just kill yourself already", and the people who said it didn't even get a small slap in the wrist. I reported this to my superiors, and nothing was done.
7- I've seen members pre-emptively blocking those they abuse, which, in turn, prevents the abused people from reporting them. I reported this to my superiors, and nothing was done.
8- I've reported endless bugs myself, and 0 of them were ever fixed. I reported this to my superiors, and nothing was done.
9- We've literally been told to hide that feature X was going to be removed, and never address it in any way, as if it had not even ever existed at all.
10- I've seen members sexually harass others, both in their words and their usernames. I reported this to my superiors, and nothing was done.
11- I've seen Listeners talk to over 10 people at the same time, so paying no real attention to anyone. I reported this to my superiors, and nothing was done.

If none of this scares you enough, well, maybe I can tell you I decided to leave when a person almost died because of 7Cups.

I have a lot I could say. For one, the people who are supporting you in the teen section don't know what they are doing. They read a little something that takes them 30 minutes then a little quiz and they're considered trained and are encouraged to tell you that they are trained. This can be harmful when the people who are reaching out, reach out with issues such as self-harm, bipolar disorder, depression, grief, and so forth which can not be fully taught in 30 minutes. There seems to be little to no moderation on 7 cups as there will be people reaching out with the name "lookingforasexygirl000" all the time and there seems to be little moderation with listeners too as I have had one harass me talking about how depressed teens are these days and how selfish it is, many people ignore me within the first messages, or just come off rude in general. Listeners are encouraged to follow up with the person they are supporting and continue to be their support into the future which can be a lot of responsibility and stress, especially for the teen listeners. On top of this, when looking up the site, it is advertised as "free therapy" which is a huge label to put on people who only read a paper for 30 minutes and took a quiz. The wait is also super long

Having been a listener on 7 Cups for quite some time now, it's been awesome to help others but when it comes to seeking support, I don't really this it's as good because I personally never felt supported the same way I offer support. I wish I could get it as well but rather there were a lot many times when I wanted to seek support because the reason was cups. Can you imagine going to a metal health site and getting mental health problems? That's what I experienced.

There are a lot of stalkers on 7 Cups, and trolls aren't even allowed to be called trolls, which I find somewhat disconcerting. When we speak of safety and all of this, they simply say "it happens all over the internet" because they simply cannot admit that they cannot improve on the safety. Unfortunately, this was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard anyone say. Listeners are often banned without even being notified, when they complain about someone, the administrators ignore them. The admin are true hypocrites when they stipulate that "favoritism isn't allowed" and still give favoritism.

It is filled with lots of stalkers, some even knowing our real names and always keeping tabs on our every move. When we report the stalkers, the admins simply ghost us and do nothing about it but chant about "teen safety" in the forums instead. The system is designed in such a way that people are likely to become addicted to it quickly. Instead of thinking about their own lives or how they can help others, listeners are mainly focused on getting badges and cheers. 7 cups is a good way of distraction but only if one is taking care of not getting too attached. There are hundreds of people who joke about mental health on cups; they simply make up an issue and seek attention there. I must say the place has numerous badge collectors, attention seekers, trolls and stalkers.

In chatrooms, there are a lot of trolls and toxic people who don't think about others' mental health, just talk rubbish and make people feel excluded. If someone simply wants help and they are new and do not even know how to communicate, they are simply blocked from joining chatrooms. Quite a few of the mods lack hearts and block others without even thinking about it.

Aside from all that, the place does have a few people who listen well and care about helping and supporting the people around them. The place might be able to help someone if they just need someone to sit with them and not worry about things like their responses being some words like "ok." If someone wants to join some discussion, there are a couple of them going on every day. It can help as a "substitute" for loneliness for those who are okay with making friends online even if they are just some toxic people who make up some issues.

Overall I truly think that 7 Cups could be a better place and maybe there will be a time in future when they don't have favoritism or take the reports just as seriously.

There is something not right about the people on 7cups. There are a lot of bad people on there. They are evil because these people don't help you and they don't care and they judge you and they are extremely small-minded and they don't understand that there are people with disabilities and they don't accept people are different. They are cult like. They accuse you of lying when you aren't. They accuse you of a lot of things you aren't doing. They torture you verbally on purpose and they bully you and are mean. They sound like people who gossip too. They believe what other people say about you and they do that instead of thinking for themselves. I felt worse after talking to the listeners because the people on there are so toxic. I didn't do anything and these people were being rude to me and they were disrespectful and dismissive. There is a lot of people who force you to agree with them and then they don't listen and they make you clarify what you said when they should just listen and not chat to you while you type and while your venting. These people don't know what respect is. These people don't know what venting is and I had to tell them over and over. They give opinions without being asked and they act like they know everything and they act like they know the situation when they don't. They accuse you of things your not doing all the time and it was annoying. They tell you how you should feel because they are controlling. They want you to be hurt or bothered by people or something instead of feeling better and because they think they should decide things for you and its really messed up and because they accuse you of that too and because they don't care and they want you to be miserable. Also they don't know what being a listener is and what being a listener is, is to listen. I am typing and they don't allow you to finish and its annoying and rude to interrupt someone who is typing. Then there is a lot of ignorant people who think they are doctors and they tell you what to do and they don't have a license to do so. It is really strange and then what they say doesn't make sense and they sound like they are talking about someone else and they talk about something completely different and they argue with you and they tell you what to do and they are inappropriate as well. There were too many weirdos I couldn't begin to count and they complain about how much you typed and how and what you say to them and they expect things to be perfect and they patronize you. There were people on there that bullied me and turned against me for no reason. They don't know what they are doing and how to help people. Avoid this site at all costs. They will make you miserable and they make you feel worse because its so toxic and they do this on purpose and people mess with you and play head games. I am glad I am gone and I am on an app and it is better than 7cups.

7 Cups is a fairly excellent site, in my opinion. I can't afford the proper therapy side of things (which the site does also offer, for a fee of $150 a month), but it's so amazing to have a space where I can get emotional support and care in non-crisis situations. It is worth noting this site isn't for full-on crises--those are best handled by services like Crisis Textline, which I also highly recommend, but that's besides the point. I struggle with anxiety and stress quite often, and it helps me out so much to have other people to lean on and know I'm not alone. Sure, I also reach out to friends and loved ones when I feel down or journal, but sometimes you need someone a little more distant from your personal circle who still cares. This site is a wonderful resource for that. Additionally, if accessing the website from a computer, you can also access self-help guides, in addition to the growth path, which consists of various mindfulness exercises and the like to help ground you. I quite adore the growth path, and it's worth noting if you upgrade to a premium membership, you can also tailor the growth path to meet any needs you may be struggling with, like anxiety or sleep troubles. But I don't use premium, so my growth path is just the general one which is still immensely helpful. There's also the support forums which are just a terrific spot to find people going through the struggles you are and giving one another care.

The listeners can be a little hit or miss, but in my experience the majority of listeners are so very helpful and caring. I truly felt heard and understood. It's such a relief to get whatever weight is on my shoulders off them. It gets so much easier to breathe. When I use 7 Cups consistently, I tend to feel my best emotionally.

I adore 7 Cups for the most part, but there are some cons. I don't want to blindly praise the site as if it's perfect. First, the group chats are pretty frustrating at times. It feels like people clog up the support chat with mindless, lighthearted chatter. When I feel down and need a few shoulders to lean on, it's far from helpful. I also dislike that the app seems to lack the self-help guides. Also I do wish they didn't immediately charge your card to get the therapy, but I understand why they do that. (Though that's exactly why I haven't gone through with it yet.) Additionally, while you can use this site to seek support in non-crisis situations and whatnot, you can't use it in crisis. I understand why the site enforces this, but I also think it's a real shame, especially for folks who might be too scared to reach out to Crisis Textline or the National Suicide Hotline. However, since the listeners and volunteers on 7 Cups are only trained in active listening and such, and not suicide counseling, etc., it makes sense why crisis situations aren't allowed on the site.

Overall, 7 Cups is such a great resource for emotional support and self-help. I think used in conjunction with using the appropriate crisis resources when in crisis, it's a fantastic means of keeping yourself resilient and afloat in rough times.