Cybersex or computer sex is a virtual sex encounter in which two or more persons connected remotely via a computer network send one another sexually explicit messages describing a sexual experience. It is a form of role-playing in which the participants pretend they are having actual sexual intercourse, by describing their actions and responding to their chat partners in a mostly written form designed to stimulate their own sexual feelings and fantasies. The quality of a cybersex encounter typically depends upon the participants' abilities to evoke a vivid, visceral mental picture in the minds of their partners. Imagination and suspension of disbelief are also critically important. Cybersex is sometimes colloquially called "cybering". Channels used to initiate cybersex are not necessarily exclusively devoted to that subjects, and participants in any Internet chat may suddenly receive a message with any possible variation of the text "Wanna cyber?" Virtual sex is when two or more people gather together via some form of communications equipment to sexually arouse each other by transmitting sexually explicit messages. ... A computer network is a system for communication among two or more computers. ... Sexually explicit material (video, photography, creative writing) presents sexual content without deliberately obscuring or censoring it. ... In role-playing, participants adopt characters, or parts, that have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own. ... The missionary position is the most common position for sexual intercourse in humans The cowgirl sex position is a good position for kissing, caressing, and embracing of the paramour The Doggy position is thus named because canines as well as most other mammals use this position. ... Suspension of disbelief is a willingness of a reader or viewer to suspend his or her critical faculties to the extent of ignoring minor inconsistencies so as to enjoy a work of fiction. ...

Characteristics

Cybersex is seen by some as a humorous, pointless, insignificant and meaningless act that carries no real emotional weight or emotional repercussions. Others believe that the sexual feeling exhibited by participants in virtual intercourse is very real and can be just as emotionally significant as feelings that occur during sexual intercourse.

Cybersex is most commonly performed in Internet chat rooms (such as IRC or web chats) and on instant messaging systems. A chat room is an online forum where people can chat online (talk by broadcasting messages to people on the same forum in real time). ... Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. ... A screenshot of PowWow, one of the first instant messengers with a graphical user interface Instant messaging is the act of instantly communicating to two or more people over a network such as the Internet. ...

It is also fairly frequent in on-line role-playing games, such as MUDs and MMORPGs, though approval of this activity varies greatly from game to game. Cybersex is sometimes called "mudsex" in MUDs. In TinyMUD variants, particularly MUCKs, the term "TinySex", abbreviated "TS", is very common. See also yiff. Computer role-playing games (CRPGs), often shortened to simply role-playing games (RPGs), are a type of video or computer game that traditionally uses gameplay elements found in paper-and-pencil role-playing games. ... In computer gaming, a MUD (multi-user dungeon, dimension, or sometimes domain) is a multi-player computer game that combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style computer games, and social instant messaging chat rooms. ... A massively (or massive) multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG is a multiplayer computer role-playing game that enables thousands of players to play in an evolving virtual world at the same time over the Internet. ... TinyMUD is the name both of a certain implementation of a Multi-User Dungeon server, and the first MUD run using that implementation. ... Look up yiff and YIFF in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Yiff is a term widely used by the furry fandom as a slang term in various sexual contexts. ...

The increasing popularity of webcams has also resulted in an increase in couples using two-way video connections to "expose" themselves to their online chat partners, enhancing the act by giving it a more visual aspect. There are a number popular commercial websites that have taken advantage of this and allow people to openly masturbate on camera while others watch them. Couples can also perfom on camera for the enjoyment of others. Usually those watching are masturbating to the arousing images. These websites often also contain videotapes that people have taken of themselves. Some of the most popular parts of these websites are videotapes of men who have powerfully strong ejaculations. The act of exchanging sexually explicit email or SMS messages is also sometimes considered cybersex. Such activities facilitated by webcams are often used for the purpose of enhancing masturbation or as an introduction to arranging a meeting for sex. While these activities are common, it is difficult to know just how widespread they are, and there is a paucity of statistical data on this subject. A web camera (or webcam) is a real time camera whose images can be accessed using the World Wide Web, instant messaging, or a PC video calling application. ... E-mail, or email, is short for electronic mail and is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ... A received SMS being announced on a Nokia phone. ... Masturbation is the manual excitation of the sexual organs, most often to the point of orgasm. ...

Cybersex differs from phone sex in that it offers a greater degree of anonymity and allows participants to meet partners more easily. In fact, a good deal of cybersex takes place between strangers who have just met online, and unlike phone sex, cybersex is rarely commercial. Phone sex refers to sexually explicit conversation between two or more persons via telephone, especially when at least one of the participants masturbates or engages in sexual fantasy. ...

One approach to cybering is a simulation of "real" sex, when participants try to make the experience as close to real life as possible, with participants taking turns writing descriptive, sexually explicit passages. Alternatively, it can be considered a form of role playing that allows a couple to experience unusual sexual sensations and carry out sexual experiments they cannot try in reality. Amongst "serious" roleplayers, cybering may occur as part of a larger plot - the characters involved may be lovers or spouses, or a character could be raped to initiate a plotline. In situations like this, the people typing often consider themselves separate entities from the "people" engaging in the sexual acts, much as the author of a novel often does not completely identify with his or her characters. In role-playing, participants adopt characters, or parts, that have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own. ...

Cybersex is often ridiculed because the partners frequently have little verifiable knowledge whatsoever about each other, not even their partner or partners' gender. However, since for many, the primary point of cybersex is the realistic simulation of sexual activity, this knowledge is not always desired or necessary.

Dangers and advantages

Cybersex is seen positively by its defenders - it satisfies sexual desires without the risk of sexually transmitted disease, is a safe way for young people who have not engaged in sexual activity to experiment, it allows participants to carry out elaborate sexual fantasies and allows "real-life" partners who are physically separated to continue to be sexually intimate. Additionally, some people with long-term ailments (including HIV) engage in cybersex as a way to safely achieve sexual release and gratification without putting their partners at risk. HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a retrovirus that infects cells of the human immune system (mainly CD4+ T cells and macrophages, vital components of the hosts immune system), and destroys or impairs their function. ...

Cybersex during an on-line role playing game carries an extra disadvantage. It is possible for one of the participants to use the wrong command and end up sending an explicit and erotic message meant only for their partner to several other people, if not to everybody currently playing that game.

Ethics

Debate continues among moralists on whether cybersex is a form of infidelity. While it does not involve physical contact, critics claim that the powerful emotions involved can cause marital stress, especially when cybersex culminates in an Internet romance. In several known cases Internet adultery became the ground for divorce. In a religious context, infidelity is an absence of faith in the beliefs or teachings of a religion, such that one who lacks such faith is an infidel. ... Internet romance is when two people are having a romantic relationship while communicating through the Internet. ... Adultery is generally defined as consensual sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their lawful spouse. ...

There is also the separate risk factor of Internet addiction, which is perceived to be a cause of social isolation and loss of work productivity. Computer addiction is a field of psychotherapy that studies impacts of extensive or obsessive computer use on the user/addict. ...

Cybersex and pedophilia

The relative anonymity of cybersex encourages Pedophiles and ephebophiles to seek out underage cybersex partners; it is more often that ephebophiles seek out encounters through these means, not always illegally. In the course of such conversations, such individuals sometimes try to send child pornography to others or arrange real-life meetings. See also grooming a child and age of consent. Pedophilia (American English), pædophilia/paedophilia (Commonwealth English), or pedosexuality is the paraphilia of being sexually attracted primarily or exclusively to prepubescent children. ... Ephebophilia, from the Greek έφηβος (ephebos) adolescent and φιλία (philia) love/friendship, is a sexual preference or orientation in which an adult is primarily or exclusively sexually attracted to adolescents (people between the ages of 13 and 17). ... The term child pornography (sometimes referred to as kiddie porn) generally refers to pornography featuring a child; however, the precise definition of pornography and child varies by region and country. ... Grooming a child is befriending a child, often in the negative context of lowering the inhibitions of the child to sexual behavior with the other person; in addition to acts which by themselves are legal, grooming may include showing pornography to the child, perhaps even child pornography. ... In criminal law, the age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be capable of legally giving informed consent to sexual acts with another person. ...

In the United States, police officers sometimes pose as minors in chat rooms in order to bait pedophiles (see "Who's 14, 'Kewl' and Flirty Online?; A 39-Year-Old Detective, and He Knows His Bra Size", The New York Times, April 7, 2003). On one occasion, an elderly man from Georgia flew into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta to meet what he thought was an underage girl he had met online with whom to have sex, only to meet sheriff's deputies instead. Another time, a teacher from Minnesota was arrested by FBI agents in Yuma, Arizona's airport, after he had arranged online to meet and have sex with what he thought were two eight-year-old girls. In law enforcement a sting operation is an operation designed to catch a person committing a crime, by means of deception. ... Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (IATA: ATL, ICAO: KATL) is located in the Atlanta, Georgia, USA metropolitan area, and is one of two airports considered the busiest airport in the world. ... Atlanta is the capital and largest city of Georgia, a state of the United States of America. ... State nickname: North Star State Other U.S. States Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) Official languages None Area 225,365 km² (12th)  - Land 206,375 km²  - Water 18,990 km² (8. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Yuma is a city located in Yuma County, Arizona, United States. ...

This practice is sometimes somewhat controversial, and in some cases may be considered a form of entrapment. In one case, a gay male journalist who was known as an advocate for gay youth had been corresponding with a person he thought was a gay teenage boy; the journalist was arrested after the boy asked to meet him. The case was dismissed when it was revealed that all talk of sex had been initiated by the "boy", and the judge ruled that the prosecution had failed to show the journalist had any intention of meeting the "boy" for sex. [1] For the film, see Entrapment (movie). ...

This practice of baiting has also become popular among some regular internet users who try to troll pedophiles and others and put the log files of such conversations online in a form of vigilantism. One site known for such actions is Perverted-Justice.com. This page is about an internet trolling technique, for the fraud method see Internet, baiting is similar to trolling, in that baiters, like trolls, try to elicit a response from other users. ... In the context of the Internet, a troll is a person who posts inflammatory messages intended to cause a disruption in discourse. ... In modern terms, vigilantes are militias or police who attempt law enforcement, in the usual phrase, by taking the law into their own hands. Vigilantes often operate in secret. ... Screenshot of the Perverted Justice website [1] Perverted-Justice. ...

See also

• Long-distance intercourse