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Sex
on the Internet and American Suburbia
"Cheating
online is Adultery."
Headline
from La Stampa, a popular Italian newspaper
"My wife doesn’t care if I have relationships
(even sexual) on the Internet. It’s like it’s
not real ...I can get away with it. But, I’m sure
she’d get upset if we were to meet for a drink
or something."
--
Anonymous Dateable.com Survey Respondent
41-year old married male from Oklahoma City
A recent survey by Dateable.com, one of the first Internet
romance communities, has revealed the results from a
four-month survey of Internet sex and morality. The
bottom line: You can talk, but you can’t look.
Dateable.com
picked a good time to release these results. The Italian
public is having the same debate this week. A recent
poll of Italians, where 97% of the population is Roman
Catholic, said that 40% of Italian women interviewed
said they feared that "their husbands might find a woman
more fascinating than them while surfing the Web."
How
do Americans compare?
When
Dateable.com visitors were asked where they would draw
the line when their significant other commits cyber-contact
with a member of the opposite sex, their responses were
a little surprising.
- According
to the survey, conducted by Dateable.com in the first
half of 2000, here is what IS OK:
- 79.7%
of their viewers stated that it IS OK to reply to
an instant message or ICQ.
- The
same percent of viewers even went as far as to say
it IS OK to have an online IM or ICQ conversation
with a member of the opposite sex whom they don’t
even know.
- An
astonishing 75.2% of their visitors stated that it
IS OK for their significant other to visit an adult
site.
And
here’s what’s NOT OK:
- Photo
exchange. 54% of Dateable.com’s visitors say
it is NOT OK to exchange photos with a person of the
opposite sex whom they don’t know.
- 77.4%
visitors polled that it is NOT OK for their significant
other to participate in an adult one-on-one online
video conversation with a member of the opposite sex
whom they don’t know.
- 80.6%
of Dateable.com’s visitors feel that it is NOT
OK for their significant other to give his or her
phone number to a member of the opposite sex whom
they do not know, but met online.
Nobody
knows the true number of extra-marital affairs occurring
online, but Elizabeth Field, founder of Infidelitybusters.com,
said she knows increasing numbers of people who have
been burned by this kind of cheating. "To me, it's a
sign of the times ... I don't agree with (cyber-cheating)
at all," said Field. Want
to learn more about the survey? Go to www.dateable.com
to participate in the sex and morality survey and read
the results.
©
Dateable.com LLC 2000
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