Most religions incorporate a form of confession. But, instead of visiting a priest, a new alternative provides the same sort of unburdening—posting confessions to be read by the masses of the Internet.

The popularity of confession-based sites shows that people are now turning to anonymous others as a source of advice, comfort, and ultimately, forgiveness.

The confession section of the popular social media site Reddit has nearly 66,000 posts, and another section entitled “Off My Chest” has 80,000 posts.

The Quiet Place Project, a nonprofit project encompassing websites aimed at human well-being, offers a site called “the Comfort Spot.” On this site, strangers post their qualms to get comfort and advice from strangers. In its first active year, the site accumulated over 11,000 pages worth of confessions.

Since there are no apparent consequences by confessing to a stranger, the comfort offered by an unbiased third party seems to be a perfect solution to solving a problem.

However, seeing as the most prevalently discussed issues on help sites are serious conditons like depression, suicidal thoughts, self-harm, and anorexia,  posters likely need more help than a anoymous stranger can provide.

There’s a reason most Internet safety precautions preach not talking to strangers on the Internet—anonymous people are not always looking out for one’s best interest. If information regarding personal struggles were to fall into the wrong hands, manipulating the poster would become far too easy.

However—most people on the Internet are not cold-blooded pedophiles, and  wouldn’t misuse information about personal struggles. Some would be genuinely concerned about giving helpful advice to someone in need.

Even if the people who respond to confessions have good intentions, it’s likely that others with the same issues will reply in an attempt to be a source of comfort. These anonymous people are not qualified to give professional help. Many tend to resort to sympathizing with the poster as opposed to providing advice to get help for their condition.

Sometimes therapy is too much to afford, or there genuinely is no one for someone to talk to. If confessing on the Internet is the only option someone has, then it is commendable that they are asking for help in the first place. But, asking for help on the Internet is only acceptable if there are truly no other options.

There is also a greater chance of finding someone who has the same struggles on confessions sites about specific issues, who will want to help because they understand the problems personally. Though talking to someone who may seem to relate to problems seems entirely positive, it actually prevents a poster from getting help quickly.

Because a responder might understand a problem, it might not seem abnormal to them.  As a result, the idea of suggesting professional help comes up less often because the problems faced by a poster may seem normal to someone who relates. If the suggestion to seek help is absent, then the poster becomes more at risk by not receiving a push to get the help they may need.

One stranger in the Comfort Spot posted, “I have a Halloween party tomorrow and I am scared people will see my cuts. They’re pretty new and in quite a visible place. I’m so stupid.” In response, the advice this stranger received was, “Tell them you were attacked by your aunt’s cat.”

There was no suggestion to break the cycle of self-harm and seek help, just pass it off as cat scratches.

On its website, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline outlines that the first step to treating a mental illness is to realize it’s there. The second step is to ask for help in treating it. By looking for comfort in strangers, treatment is stopped at the first stage. It’s nearly impossible for a stranger, someone who the poster will likely never talk to again, will push for help.

Offering comfort to hurting strangers is by no means bad, but not pushing for real help does a greater disservice to those in need of it.