cybersex: research notes on the characteristics of the visitors to online chat rooms

The computer, devised as a computational tool, is now a means of communication. Like other technological developments in communication and transportation, K. F. Durkin and C. D. Bryant (1995) note that the computer can be used for deviant purposes. The Internet and online services provide access to knowledge and a means for persons of like interest to communicate. Politicians and the popular media have reported anecdotally that deviant conversation, obscenity, and pornography are being distributed via the computer. This study gathered information on the personae projected by individuals who visit online chat rooms putatively for youth. Less than 10% of the visitors appeared to be genuine youth. Two thirds were adults masquerading as children to engage in cybersex. Masturbation while reading of the sexual activities of others or during the casting of mutual fantasies is the essence of cybersex. In addition, pornographers represented 25% of those online. The pornographers were indiscriminate in sending material and clever at evading regulation. Regulation of cyberspace is unlikely to inhibit this form of deviancy as computer communication advances technically.