The present invention provides a method and system for providing contact management to participants engaged in a communication session. The invention permits chat session participants to a communication session to determine common contacts that exists between the chat session participants. Dependent on the accessibility of the particular chat session participants' contact list, other chat session participants to the communication session can view the information located in the contact list. Moreover, a particular chat session participant to the communication session can give either a particular chat session participant or all the chat session participants to the communication session permission to modify their contact list. Permission to access or modify contact lists for chat session participants can be defined prior to establishment of the communication session and/or changed during the communication session. Changes relating to whether a particular contact list is accessible and/or modifiable can be initiated by the chat session participant associated with the contact list. Additionally, such changes can be initiated by a request from a chat session participants to modify the contact records in a particular contact list. The invention can be applicable to systems which can include, but is not limited to, chat rooms, instant messaging, and call conferencing.