Information and Resources

Virtual Meeting + Real Sex = Disease

July 25, 2000 -- You don't need latex gloves to surf the Internet for sex partners -- but you'll need latex condoms once you find them. That's the advice of public health officials, who find that online sexual adventurers are at high risk of infection with HIV, syphilis, and other sexually transmitted diseases ( STDs).

One-third of adult Internet visits are directed to sexually oriented web sites. Most of these people are only looking -- but those who want more can use the Internet to find like-minded sex partners much more quickly, easily, and anonymously than ever before.

"The efficiency that the Internet adds to life is brought to sex life as well," CDC researcher Mary McFarlane, PhD, tells WebMD. "People can prearrange sex contacts while on business travel, or schedule more ahead of time, than they typically would."

McFarlane says she does not think that the Internet itself is making people more sexually adventurous. Instead, sexually adventurous people are finding that the Internet makes it easier for them to find each other -- and to arrange a rendezvous.

This makes Kathleen E. Toomey, MD, MPH, director of Georgia's Division of Public Health, worry about the future of public health. "Individuals who use the Internet to find sex partners are at high risk for STDs," she tells WebMD. "The group we are very concerned about is youths who are going to have their sexual debut in the Internet era. We need to be considering how the Internet works as a social bridge between people who wouldn't ordinarily meet. That makes this Internet phenomenon more important."

Aside from the risk of having one's identity discovered, adult cybersex is safe sex -- up to a point. That point is when people who meet in cyberspace decide to have sex in the real world, according to two studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The first study looks at a group of people getting HIV tests and finds that Internet adventurers report the riskiest sexual behavior. The second tells the story of how the San Francisco Health Department used the Internet itself to fight an outbreak of syphilis among the users of an Internet chat room. And an editorial published along with the studies says these findings should be a wake-up call for public health action.

"A lot of discussion in media focuses on cyberporn, but that is a sex activity at low risk of STD transmission," says Toomey, co-author of the editorial. "It's when the Internet becomes the vehicle through which people meet for high-risk sexual activity that disease transmission occurs. Soliciting sex partners on the Internet puts you at risk of sexually transmitted diseases. It is a high-risk activity, and you should protect yourself -- either by avoiding this kind of activity or by using condoms with every sexual encounter."