Sex, the Internet and Amercian 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 -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.

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