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'tJrban Horrigan, John B. Online Communities: Netutorks That Study of the Community Question." Affairs Nurture Long-Distance Relationships and Local Ties. Qwarterly, v.L413 (1979). I7ashington, DC: Pew and American Life Project, 2001. Lenhart, Amanda, Kristen Purcell, Aaron Smith, and Vmruer Ssx Kathryn Zickuhr. and Mobile Internet tJse Among Teens and Young Adults. Washington, DC: Pew Sex and technology have likely been intertwined since Research Center, 2010. http://www.pewinternet.orgl humans recognized that they could use tools on them- Reports/2O 1 0/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults. aspx selves. Yet with the advent (Accessed November 2010). of new communication technologies, people have, unsurprisingly, Livingstone, Sonia, Leslie Haddon, Anke Gorzig, and devoted considerable interest Kjartan Olafsson. Risks and Safety on the Internet: The to the notion of virtual sex. Despite its seeming Perspectiue of European Children. London: EU Kids simplicity of definition, virfual sex Online Project/London School of Economics and encompasses a wide variety of practices, ranging from Political Science, 2010. simple mastffbation with an accompanying fantasy the Powazek, Derek M. Designing for Community: The Art of to use of sex robots. However, when most speak Connecting Real People in Virtual Places.Indianapolis, of virnral se& they are describing the practice of sex IN: New Riders,2002. mediated through machinery or sofrware. There are Preece, Jenny. Online Communities: Designing Usability, three main modes of virtual sex: textuaUimage-based, 'West Swpporting Sociability. Sussex, UK: \7iley & Sons, mechanical, and interface-driven. 2000. Rainie, Lee and Janna Quitney Anderson. The Future of TextuaUlmage-Based Virtual Sex the lnternet IV Report: The Fwtwre of Social Relations. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center/Elon University, It is often said that the largest sexual organ is the 20 1 0. http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/ human brain. One can stimulate another through expertsurveys/2O1 0survey/default.xhtml (Accessed the imagination and therefore through words, and November 2010). when this occurs it is known as . There have Rainie, Lee and Janna Quitney Anderson. The Future of long been Internet chat rooms dedicated to cybersex. the Internet lV Report: Millennials Expected to Make In such rooms, individuals describe what they would Online Sharing in Networks a Lifelong Habit. be doing to the other if he or she were present. There Washingon, DC: Pew Research Center/Elon Universiry are other types of virtual sex that bridge the textual 20 1 0. hup://www.elon.edr-r/e-web/predictions/ elements of cybersex with "point of view" (POV) expertsuryeys/201 0survey/default.xhtml (Accessed . One such program is VirtualFem, November 2010). which incorporates artificial intelligence with sex- Rheingold, Howard. The Virtwal Commwnity: ual commands and video. However, compared to Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, Rev. ed. textual cybersex with an actual person, the artificial Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000. intelligence seems stilted and uninteresting. Ridings, Catherine M. and David Gefen. "Virtual Another aspect of virtual sex is a practice referred Community Attraction: I7hy People Hang Out Online.,, to as "," or sending sexually explicit texts and I ournal of Computer-Mediated Communication, v.1.0/ 1, (200412006 online). images to another individual, generally through cell phones. Shade, Leslie Regan. Gender and Commwnity in the Social This has recently been in the media because teenagers Construction of the Internez. Digital Formations Series have been sending images of themselves to 1, Steve Jones, ed. New York: Peter Lang,2002. others, making them subject to Urban, Greg. Metaculture: Hout Culrure Moues Through laws. Also included in image-based virtual sex are the Woild. Foreword by Benjamin Lee. Minneapolis: sexual activities that take place between avatars in University of Minnesota Press, 2001. virtual reality environments such as , Iflarner, Michael. Publics and Counterpadlics. New York: which can also incorporate voice-over-IP chat as Books,2002. well as text-based chat. Wellman, Barry and Barry Leighton. "Networks, At its heart, these forms of cybersex retain their Neighborhoods, and Communities: Approaches to the roots in the love letters and lines of 426 Virtual Sex previous generations.'S7hat distinguishes cybersex direct mediation between two (or more) individu- from its predecessors is the ability to participate als, such as interface-based products like Sinulator anonymously with one or more individuals who are and HighJoy. For example, Sinulator allows control likewise seeking similar . While of a that is connected over the Internet to phone sex lines are generally operated on a pay-per- a synthetic , while HighJoy simply allows call basis and the exchange of love letters generally an individual to control another's vibrator online. necessitated a relationship, digital cybersex can The vibrator is given a name, and anyone with that circumvent these barriers. Moreover, a major draw name can connect and control the vibrator. This is for practitioners of cybersex is that they need not often the case with women who perform sexual acts be who they are in real life. For example, a male on . There are also simpler remote control can have virtual sex as a female, animal, or mythical vibrators that can be used anywhere (within range) creature in the digital realm. but are not controlled through the Internet. Because the vibrator is connected to the remote control, there Mechanical Virtual Sex is no anonymity involved, as can be the case with the other interface-driven systems. Another strand of virtual sex focuses on tricking the Like all sexual activities, virtual sex has its advan- body into thinking that it is participating in sexual tages and disadvantages. Perhaps chief among the activity through the use of machinery and POV advantages is the fact that such practices carry little pornography. Some of these programs include the or no chance of contracting sexually transmifted dis- Virtual Sex Machine and Real Touch. However, all eases or becoming pregnant. Virtual sex also allows of this could just as easily be accomplished using individuals to engage in alternative sexual practices, a , vibrator, or synthetic vaginal sleeve while effectively "tryrng on" a different sexualiry includ- watching POV pornography. Because of the ubiq- ing engaging in sexual behavior as the other sex. uity of digital cameras and camcorders, POV por- homosexualiry and fringe behaviors such as bond- nography is hardly novel anymore, and there are ageldomination sadomasochism (BDSM). Because countless amateur POV videos online. 'S7hile many participants view virtual sex as not real, thev the Virtual Sex Machine and Real Touch perceive their participation as harmless pleasure. rely on the illusion of an active participant in the Moreover, participants are able to engage in high- sexual encounter, other forms of virtual sex take a risk sexual activities, such as fetish play, with less more strictly mechanical approach. Synthetic sex bodily risk. Related to this benefit is the relative ease dolls have a long historg although mainly as gag with which one can find a willing partner or even gifts. However, these have become more sophis- a community built around such activities. This can ticated and expensive, costing thousands of dol- be especially useful in finding offline sexual part- lars. Some, such as the RealDoll, are equipped for ners who share a particular fetish or affinity for less both men and women, while others, such as the common sexual practices. Finally there are reported CybOrgasMatrix, are only female. These synthetic benefits in communicating about sexuality. Despite sex dolls come equipped with functional genitalia the fact that virtual sex is taking place in the online and other orifices. There are sex machines geared or mechanical plane, practitioners still must learn toward women, which consist of a dildo attached to articulate their desires, especially in cybersex and to an oscillating machine that can be controlled by interface-driven virtual sex, which, according to wireless access or remote control. However, both some, can be a liberating experience. the sex dolls and these sex machines simply offer A major disadvantage to virtual sex comes when methods of technologically enhanced one or both partners in the interaction are married as opposed to true virtual sex. to or otherwise involved with someone else. When the unincluded partner finds out about the virtual Interface-Driven Virtual Sex liaison, he or she can feel a deep sense of betrayal. Despite the previous advancements that fall despite the fact that no physical contact with the under the general rubric of virtual sex, those that virtual partner has taken place. Such concerns have come closest to embodying the idea of virtual sex raised questions about the ethics of virtual sex in are interface-driven models that allow for a more the face of cyberinfidelity. This may be especiallr Virtuality 427 problematic if the online sexual behavior becomes Lunceford, Brett. "The New Pornographers: Legal and compulsive, leading to problems in the primary Ethical Considerations of Sexting." In The Etbics of offline relationship. Related to this issue is the Emerging Media: Information, Social Norms, and New potential for unwanted emotional attachments to Media Technology, Bruce Drushel and Kathleen M. form; where one participant may view the activity as German, eds. New York: Continuum, 2011. harmless fun, the other participant may believe that Lynn, Regina. The Sexual Reuolution 2.0: Geuing Connected, Upgrading Your , and Finding True a relationship is being created. Loue-or at Least a Dinner Date-in the lntemet Age. There are other, more troubling dangers in virnral 'Vfith Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press, 2005. sex. the advantage that virrual sex makes it Mileham, Beatriz Lia Avila. "Online in Internet easier to find willing participants in less common Chat Rooms: An Ethnographic Exploration." sexual practices comes the potential to bring into the Computers in Hwman Bebauior,v.23l1. (2007). open more dangerous and damaging practices, such Rheingold, Howard. Virtual Reality. New York Summit as bestiality, pedophilia and age play, fantasies, Books, 1991. virtual child pornography through the use of child- like avatars, and other forms of edge play (sexual acts that push the boundaries of safety). There is also the possibility that one or both of the individu- Vmrueurv als involved in the virtual sex act may be an under- age person. This has been especially problematic in At the most basic level, uirtuality rcfers to a condi- the case of sexting. tion or location outside the real; it is usually under- Overall, virtual sex has forced people to redefine stood as the opposite of reality. The term has a rich what falls under the rubric of sex when no physical history of usage in media studies scholarship, in the contact has taken place. It seems clear that in virtual popular press, in traditional and interactive fiction, sex, something has taken place, even i{ it is not sex in and in many other contexts. Virtuality may refer to the traditional manner. Indeed, the power of virtual simulations, to processes of imagination, or to any sex is that the act takes place mainly in the mind of other kind of activity that takes place at least par- the individual or individuals involved. Moreover, by tially outside the physical world. Although it is a mediating the sexual act, virnral sex also calls into term most often associated with new media technol- question how men and women interact sexually ogies, the term uirtual predates digital technologies when one can "be" the other, at least in virtual space. and has a long history in philosophy and literature, One thing seems certain: Because sexuality is such among other fields. a core aspect of the human experience, as long as Outside electronic contexts, virtual might refer to technology continues to evolve, people will continue something being either "in effect" or "almost" real (as to find new ways to express themselves sexually. in "Beatlemania is a virnral cult" or "That cubic zirco- Brett Lwnceford nia ring is virtually as beautiful as a diamond ring"). It Uniuersity of South Alabama may also refer to something being created mentally ("I can imagine myself virnrally sitting on a park bench"). See ako ; Cyberdating; and Howeveq the term uiruality almost always refers to Pornification of Everyday Life; Cyberculture; simulation of reality through the use of digital tech- Lesbian; Pornography: Pornography: Gay and nologies. Common examples of virtuality would Heterosexual; Pornography: Internet; Sexuality; include video games (especially titles that employ vir- Transsexuality; Virtual Community; Virtuality tual reality),'Web-based communities, online libraries, online storefronts, or online classrooms. Further Readings Scholarship on virtuality in digital contexts is Doring, Nicola M. "The Internet's Impact on Sexuality: A wide-ranging in that it covers instances of virtuality Critical Review of 15 Years of Research." Computers in as they occur in practice, the philosophy of virnrality, Human Beh auior, v.25 I 5 (2009). the technologies that make virtuality possible, and Kibby, Marlorie and Brigid Costello. "Between the Image the effects of virtuality on real-world experiences and the Act: Interactive Sex Entertainment on the and interactions. Across this scholarship certain Internet." Sexualities, v.4l 3 (2001). trends have emerged that, collectively, create a better