Cybersex
I think while many people view online flirting as harmless since there is no touching of the other person there is still great danger emotionally. The most important facets include blurring of male and female identities, cocktails of fact and fantasy, sharp disjunctions and free associations in thoughts, and the fluid assumption of new personas, all aided and abetted by hyper fast communication in the absence of verbal and visual cues to behavior. If the cybersex trial tells us anything, it is that in the free-wheeling interplay of these elements, which it encourages, cyber culture has turned yesterday’s pathology into today’s ordinary sex chat. The Internet definitely has its charms. But unless there is a better understanding of how it is changing the dynamics of social life, there may well be a lot more court in modem courtship.
Since is not my field there is part of the latest and most serious EXPLORATORY STUDY ABOUT THE IMPACTS THAT CYBERSEX IS HAVING (Peter D. Goldberg Karen Rosen, Ed. D., Chairperson) I was given:
“CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The Problem and Its Setting Since 1994 the Internet experienced a surge in growth as it became widely available to private commerce, and to the general public (Kristula, 2001). That year there were 38 million internet users worldwide, and by September of 2002 the number grew to 606 million users;approximately 30%, or 183 million, were from the United States and Canada (Nua, 2003). During these past 10 years, what is communicated, how it is communicated, where communications originate and terminate, can all be directed and controlled from personal computers, cell phones, or hand-held organizers. E-mail, chat rooms, streaming-video technologies, live video, music, radio, auctions, e-commerce are all communicated via the Internet at a minimal cost from the privacy of our homes, hotels, offices, and cars. Sex has been reported to be the most popular search topic on the Internet (Nua Internet Surveys, 2001). Leone and Beilsmith (1999) reported that 31% of the people on-line visited an adult-content web site. Cooper, Delmonico, & Burg (2000) surveyed 9,265 Cybersex users and categorized this population into four groups: 83% were non-sexually compulsive, recreational users, who did not exhibit problematic behaviors; 11% were moderately sexually compulsive;5% were sexually compulsive; and 1% were Cybersex compulsive. The study identified a category of “at-risk” Cybersex users as those who may never have accessed pornographic material were it not for the privacy and availability of the Internet. The California Marital and Sexuality Center identify 6.5% of those accessing Cybersex sites as exhibiting compulsive behaviors, and an additional 17% have been described as “at risk” of becoming sexually addicted (Cooper, Delmonico, & Burg, 2000). Based on these estimates, as many as 47 million people are 2 viewing Cybersex, and as many as 9.6 million may be experiencing problems with controlling their behaviors with Cybersex. The access to sexual material by either the recreational users or those experiencing compulsive pathology affects their partners and immediate families (Young, 2001). Nonsexual compulsive (including educational/research purposes) use may be misunderstood by partners or sexually explicit material may be inadvertently left on computers and later accessed by children; compulsive users negatively affect their partners in a variety of ways as I explain later in the study. The Internet is challenging the very definitions of terms such as infidelity,sexuality, pornography, and intimacy. Is a sexually explicit chat on the Internet an affair? What are the long term repercussions of accidentally leaving a pornographic picture on a computer monitor that can be viewed by a 7 year old child? What are the impacts on a couple’s sexual expression when a partner finds that a sexual fantasy that would otherwise have been naturally extinguished is now strongly reinforced on the Internet? Through the Internet, pornography, sexually explicit material, and sexually focused communication (Cybersex) is now available to every household that is connected to the World Wide Web. The spouses, the children, the siblings, and the extended circle of relationships of those accessing Cybersex are at risk of finding themselves swept up in a wake of consequences brought on by this contemporary form of sexual expression. There exist several studies performed by addiction specialists on the characteristics and usage patterns of Cybersex addicts (Cooper et al., 2000), and on the reported effects of Cybersex use on their partners (Schneider, 2000). However, there exist no studies that tell us how Cybersex problems are presenting in the offices of marriage and family therapists. This exploratory study looks at the experience of marriage and family therapists with clients coming for therapy presenting conflicts around Cybersex us “The Problem and Its Setting Since 1994 the Internet experienced a surge in growth as it became widely available to private commerce, and to the general public (Kristula, 2001). That year there were 38 million internet users worldwide, and by September of 2002 the number grew to 606 million users; approximately 30%, or 183 million, were from the United States and Canada (Nua, 2003). During these past 10 years, what is communicated, how it is communicated, where communications originate and terminate, can all be directed and controlled from personal computers, cell phones, or hand-held organizers. E-mail, chat rooms, streaming-video technologies, live video, music, radio, auctions, e-commerce are all communicated via the Internet at a minimal cost from the privacy of our homes, hotels, offices, and cars. Sex has been reported to be the most popular search topic on the Internet (Nua Internet Surveys, 2001). Leone and Beilsmith (1999) reported that 31% of the people on-line visited an adult-content web site. Cooper, Delmonico, & Burg (2000) surveyed 9,265 Cybersex users and categorized this population into four groups: 83% were non-sexually compulsive, recreational users, who did not exhibit problematic behaviors; 11% were moderately sexually compulsive; 5% were sexually compulsive; and 1% were Cybersex compulsive. The study identified a category of “at-risk” Cybersex users as those who may never have accessed pornographic material were it not for the privacy and availability of the Internet. The California Marital and Sexuality Center identify 6.5% of those accessing Cybersex sites as exhibiting compulsive behaviors, and an additional 17% have been described as “at risk” of becoming sexually addicted (Cooper, Delmonico, & Burg, 2000). Based on these estimates, as many as 47 million people are viewing Cybersex, and as many as 9.6 million may be experiencing problems with controlling their behaviors with Cybersex. The access to sexual material by either the recreational users or those experiencing compulsive pathology affects their partners and immediate families (Young, 2001). Nonsexually compulsive (including educational/research purposes) use may be misunderstood by partners or sexually explicit material may be inadvertently left on computers and later accessed by children; compulsive users negatively affect their partners in a variety of ways as I explain later in the study. The Internet is challenging the very definitions of terms such as infidelity, sexuality, pornography, and intimacy. Is a sexually explicit chat on the Internet an affair? What are the long term repercussions of accidentally leaving a pornographic picture on a computer monitor that can be viewed by a 7 year old child? What are the impacts on a couple’s sexual expression when a partner finds that a sexual fantasy that would otherwise have been naturally extinguished is now strongly reinforced on the Internet? Through the Internet, pornography, sexually explicit material, and sexually focused communication (Cybersex) is now available to every household that is connected to the World Wide Web. The spouses, the children, the siblings, and the extended circle of relationships of those accessing Cybersex are at risk of finding themselves swept up in a wake of consequences brought on by this contemporary form of sexual expression. There exist several studies performed by addiction specialists on the characteristics and usage patterns of Cybersex addicts (Cooper et al., 2000), and on the reported effects of Cybersex use on their partners (Schneider, 2000). However, there exist no studies that tell us how Cybersex problems are presenting in the offices of marriage and family therapists. This exploratory study looks at the experience of marriage and family therapists with clients coming for therapy presenting conflicts around Cybersex use.”
P.C. Anyone interested in the full material please leave me your email and I will send it to you by PDF file)