The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of ITAA

The 12 Steps of ITAA:

1. We admitted we were powerless over internet and technology—that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of a Higher Power of our own understanding. 

4. Made a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have our Higher Power remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked our Higher Power to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all those we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to those we had harmed wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through practices such as prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with a Power greater than ourselves, praying only for knowledge of our Higher Power’s will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to internet and technology addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

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The 12 Traditions of ITAA:

Tradition 1: Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on ITAA unity.

Tradition 2: For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving Higher Power as may be expressed through our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

Tradition 3: The only requirement for ITAA membership is a desire to stop using internet and technology compulsively.

Tradition 4: Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or ITAA as a whole.

Tradition 5: Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the compulsive internet and technology user who still suffers.

Tradition 6: An ITAA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the ITAA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

Tradition 7: Every ITAA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

Tradition 8: While our service bodies may employ qualified workers, the act of one member helping another ought never be compensated, ensuring that ITAA remains forever nonprofessional.

Tradition 9: ITAA ought never be organized as a hierarchy, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

Tradition 10: ITAA has no opinion on outside issues, hence the ITAA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

Tradition 11: Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television, and other public media of communication.

Tradition 12: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

While we do not yet have our own wording for the Twelve Concepts, the wording of AA’s concepts can be found here, which may serve as a useful reference.

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous have been adapted with the permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (“A.A.W.S.”). Permission to adapt the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions does not mean that Alcoholics Anonymous is affiliated with this program. A.A. is a program of recovery from alcoholism only – use of A.A.’s Steps or an adapted version in connection with programs and activities which are patterned after A.A., but which address other problems, or use in any other non-A.A. context, does not imply otherwise.

Page last updated on October 22, 2023