Towards Ethical Requirements for Addictive Technology: The Case of Online Gambling

Abstract

Today many interactive online platforms are equipped with immersive and attention-grabbing elements to increase user engagement and persuade more online presence, interaction and transactions. Excessive and obsessive use of technology combined with harm can be seen as a behavioral addiction. While technology companies started to introduce tools to mitigate addictive behavior, their principles, design process and success are questionable. Given the potential conflict between the revenue model and such tools, our work aims to define ethical requirements categories that act as a reference point for analysts and designers. We base our discussion on online gambling, which provides a clear example of addictive technology. Reno Model I–V was examined to discover main guidelines for enabling conscious online activity. As a result, we identified three main ethical goals: 1) creating an environment that supports informed choice, 2) monitoring player data to identify risk factors, and 3) introducing measures to tackle problematic online behaviour. We then refined these upper level goals into more concrete functionalities and metrics.