eSex

Sex in Cyberspace: the ugly side of the internet; the profitable side of the internet; the secret side of the internet.

What can we not receive from the internet? The difficulty in answering this question is what makes the internet both great and unsavory at the same time.

The internet provides us with an unlimited supply of resources, but not all those resources are "good". Unsurprisingly the internet has a darkside...and that dark side is not that difficult to find.

Pornographic material has infiltrated the internet from its very beginning and has morphed into an extremely profitable industry. Advertisements, images, videos, chat rooms and live streaming are all available with just a few clicks of a button or entering a few words into a search engine; quite simply pornography is freely available to all users of the World Wide Web. Whether they are viewing pornographic images, watching videos, or participating in real time communication with other individuals, whether they are female, male, heterosexual or homosexual, the content is out there and people view it. So, what are the consequences of this materials' availability??

Pornography addiction: worse than crack cocaine?

In the article Internet Porn: Worse than Crack? by Ryan Singel, clinicians and researchers claim that "internet porn is leading to addiction, misogyny, pedophilia, boob jobs and erectile dysfunction"; a plight that is being liken to addiction to crack cocaine.

The clinicians and researchers main argument outlined that the accessibility of online pornography is what makes it such a great addiction hazard. Addicts can pump the 'drug' into their system any time they want due to the images being retained in their memories; thus, in essence, the addict can never fully remove their 'drug' from their system. This creates a dilemma for addicts when trying to recover, for how can you recover from something that you can never gain independence from? For this reason the panel suggested the government fund health campaign to warn the public of the dangers pornography pose to their lives, in an attempt to deter individuals from placing themselves in a position to fall victim of the content. But the chances of this eventuating are slim with many psychologists and sexologist finding the concept of 'pornography addiction' highly problematic. Is this fair?

Addiction is serious and can be triggered by a multitude of stimuli. Campaigns exist to help combat drug addiction, alcoholism, compulsive gambling, over-eating and mental illnesses. So why should addiction to internet pornography be different? Sure, the concept may not have expert/academic support at the moment, but once upon a time depression was not 100% supported either. If people have acknowledged pornography to be an issue in their life how can it be ignored? If people need help I think it should be provided. Ignore the terminology, ignore the politics, ignore the fact that not much research has been conducted to date and just help those who request it.

It’s not just a man’s world, believe it or not.

Now, common opinion may have you believe the world of online sex to be that of a man’s world, but in one study comprising 9,000 participants women accounted for 21% of cybersex addicts. For women cybersex has a more significant relationship aspect when compared that of men’s habits. This fact can be further analysed using Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Theory .

Haraway would argue than within the online world of cybersex women have become Cyborgs. The women use the computer as an extension of themselves to reach out into cyberspace to fulfill romantic, personal ad relationship voids that are not being met in the real world. They are using technology to extended their person and develop 'relationships' based in an artificial environment (cyberspace) with computers being the tool of choice to place them into that world. This is a Cyborg at work; without the technology the habits, relationships and feelings would not exist. The computer thus becomes a part of the women, and the woman thus becomes a Cyborg.

Personally, I was surprised that the level of woman participants was as high as is reported. I too was of the belief that cybersex was a man’s world. You learn something new everyday…