Cybersex in the “Net generation”: Online sexual activities among Spanish adolescents

The internet offers several opportunities to explore sexuality among adolescents. However, some studies have also revealed problematic effects of cybersex in earlier stages. Despite this, few studies analyze the online sexual behavior among adolescents, even less in Spain where there is very little data. For this reason, our aim is to examine the use of internet for sexual purposes among Spanish adolescents, including gender differences. Three hundred and twenty-two adolescents completed an ad-hoc questionnaire and the Spanish version of the Internet Sex Screening Test. In general, boys report more cybersex than girls do, for example, in masturbating while the Internet (60.6% of boys and 7.3% of girls). In addition, internet sex interferes with lifestyles more frequently in boys (12.7% of them) than in girls (4.7% of them). Moreover, according to linear regression, variables such as general pornography use or oral sex seem to be connected to cybersex for both groups, while same-sex behaviors are more associated with cybersex for boys and masturbation for girls. Therefore, these findings support the existence of cybersex among Spanish adolescents (ranging from 3.1% to 60.6% in boys and 0%–11.5% in girls for some online sexual activities), including certain problematic behaviors (8.6% of boys show a risk profile), and the relevance of gender in its analysis. These results should be considered in prevention and support strategies.     

Online sexual activities: An exploratory study of problematic and non-problematic usage patterns in a sample of men

Involvement in online sexual activities (OSAs) is ubiquitous, especially in males, and can under certain circumstances become problematic. The risk factors associated with problematic OSAs remain, however, poorly explored. The current study aimed to investigate the characteristics, usage patterns, and motives for men to engage in OSAs and to disentangle the risk factors associated with problematic OSAs. To this end, 434 men completed an online survey measuring socio-demographic information, OSAs consumption habits, motives for engaging in OSAs, symptoms of problematic OSAs, and sexual dysfunctions. Results showed that watching pornography is the most prevalent OSA, and sexual gratification is the most frequent motive for OSAs involvement. Additional multiple regression analyses indicated that the following characteristics are associated with problematic use of OSAs: (a) partnered-arousal activities (e.g., sex chat) and solitary-arousal activities (e.g., pornography); (b) anonymous fantasizing and mood regulation motives; and (c) higher sexual desire, lower overall sexual satisfaction, and lower erectile function. This study sheds new light on the characteristics, motives, and sexual function of men involved in OSAs, emphasizing that problematic OSAs are heterogeneous and depend on interrelated factors. The findings support tailoring of preventive actions and clinical interventions to both OSA type and individual risk factors.     

Sexting and Sexual Behavior, 2011–2015: A Critical Review and Meta‐Analysis of a Growing Literature

Sexting and its potential links to sexual behavior, including risky sexual practices, have received scholarly scrutiny, but this literature is marked by divergent perspectives and disparate findings. To assess claims regarding the nature of the relationship between sexting and sexual behavior, we conducted a critical review of the literature and analyzed data from 15 articles via quantitative meta‐analytic techniques. Sexting behavior was positively related to sexual activity, unprotected sex, and one's number of sexual partners, but the relationship was weak to moderate. Additional information, gleaned from a critical review of included studies, helped contextualize these findings and point to specific limitations and directions for future research.     

Does deviant pornography use follow a Guttman-like progression?

This study investigated whether deviant pornography use followed a Guttman-like progression in that a person transitions from being a nondeviant to deviant pornography user. In order to observe this progression, 630 respondents from Survey Sampling International’s (SSI) panel Internet sample completed an online survey assessing adult-only, bestiality, and child pornography consumption. Respondents’ “age of onset” for adult pornography use was measured to determine if desensitization occurred in that individuals who engaged in adult pornography at a younger age were more likely to transition into deviant pornography use. Two hundred and 54 respondents reported the use of nondeviant adult pornography, 54 reported using animal pornography, and 33 reported using child pornography. The child pornography users were more likely to consume both adult and animal pornography, rather than just solely consuming child pornography. Results suggested deviant pornography use followed a Guttman-like progression in that individuals with a younger “age of onset” for adult pornography use were more likely to engage in deviant pornography (bestiality or child) compared to those with a later “age of onset”. Limitations and future research suggestions are discussed.     

GSS participation: A cultural examination

It has been suggested that group support systems (GSS) reduce many meeting participation barriers. GSS impact may interact with culture, thereby affecting GSS efficacy in a given context. However, since the majority of GSS research is based on studies in the United States, implications of this interaction for different cultural settings are not obvious.A research model is developed to help identify effects of cultural settings. Hofstede's cultural dimensions of power distance, individualism–collectivism, and masculinity–femininity are employed as example settings. Parallel and anonymous entry are employed as example GSS functionalities. The research model's usefulness is then illustrated by generating research propositions focusing on interactions of these settings and functionalities. Further examples employing other cultural settings and GSS functionalities are then suggested as evidence that the model is robust as well as useful.     

Transfer Learning on Deep Neural Networks to Detect Pornography

While the internet has a lot of positive impact on society, there are negative components. Accessible to everyone through online platforms, pornography is, inducing psychological and health related issues among people of all ages. While a difficult task, detecting pornography can be the important step in determining the porn and adult content in a video. In this paper, an architecture is proposed which yielded high scores for both training and testing. This dataset was produced from 190 videos, yielding more than 19 h of videos. The main sources for the content were from YouTube, movies, torrent, and websites that hosts both pornographic and non-pornographic contents. The videos were from different ethnicities and skin color which ensures the models can detect any kind of video. A VGG16, Inception V3 and Resnet 50 models were initially trained to detect these pornographic images but failed to achieve a high testing accuracy with accuracies of 0.49, 0.49 and 0.78 respectively. Finally, utilizing transfer learning, a convolutional neural network was designed and yielded an accuracy of 0.98.     

Sending and receiving text messages with sexual content: Relations with early sexual activity and borderline personality features in late adolescence

This research examined adolescents' written text messages with sexual content to investigate how sexting relates to sexual activity and borderline personality features. Participants (N = 181, 85 girls) completed a measure of borderline personality features prior to 10th grade and were subsequently given smartphones configured to capture the content of their text messages. Four days of text messaging were micro-coded for content related to sex. Following 12th grade, participants reported on their sexual activity and again completed a measure of borderline personality features. Results showed that engaging in sexting at age 16 was associated with reporting an early sexual debut, having sexual intercourse experience, having multiple sex partners, and engaging in drug use in combination with sexual activity two years later. Girls engaging in sex talk were more likely to have had sexual intercourse by age 18. Text messaging about hypothetical sex in grade 10 also predicted borderline personality features at age 18. These findings suggest that sending text messages with sexual content poses risks for adolescents. Programs to prevent risky sexual activity and to promote psychological health could be enhanced by teaching adolescents to use digital communication responsibly.     

Pornography-seeking behaviors following midterm political elections in the United States: A replication of the challenge hypothesis

The current study examined a prediction derived from the challenge hypothesis; individuals who viciously win a competition of rank order will seek out pornography relatively more often than individuals who viciously lose a competition. By examining Google keyword searches during the 2006 and 2010 midterm elections in the United States, the relative popularity of various pornography keyword searches was computed for each state and the District of Columbia the week after each midterm election. Consistent with previous research examining presidential elections and the challenge hypothesis, individuals located in traditionally Republican states tended to search for pornography keywords relatively more often after the 2010 midterm election (a Republican victory) than after the 2006 midterm election (a Democratic victory). Conversely, individuals located in traditionally Democratic states tended to search for pornography relatively less often following the 2010 midterm election than they did following the 2006 midterm election.     

Netiquette within married couples: Agreement about acceptable online behavior and surveillance between partners

The internet has become an integral part of many people’s everyday lives. It is unclear what its role is in maintaining intimate offline relationships and whether the use of the internet might cause conflicts between partners about what constitutes acceptable online behavior. An online survey of 920 married couples in the UK who used the internet investigated whether partners have similar netiquettes. There were high levels of agreement between married partners about the unacceptability of online infidelities; similarly they agreed more than two random individuals about the acceptability of entertainment activities which, in excess, might be addictive. Partners further showed high correspondence in surveillance behavior. Women were more concerned about their own and their partner’s behavior and were more likely to monitor their partner’s online activities. These findings suggest that a netiquette is developed and consciously or subconsciously negotiated within intimate relationships. Nevertheless, traditional gender differences as regards risk perception still hold; women are more likely to problematies their own and their partners behaviors.     

Internet use and online social support among same sex attracted individuals of different ages

The current research addressed age differences in internet use among Same Sex Attracted (SSA) individuals. In general, online communities are found to be a source of social support, especially for minority group members. However, it is unclear whether younger and older SSA people differ in their use of these communities. The present research examined age differences in use of online communities, hypothesizing that young SSA people primarily use these for social interaction and support, whereas older SSA people use online communities to seek sexual contacts. Study 1 examined age differences in motives to start using these websites. Study 2 examined age differences in use of online profiles and online social support. Results of both studies confirmed our hypotheses. Younger compared to older SSA people are found to receive more online social support, whereas older SSA use the internet more for sexual purposes. Our findings provide first time evidence of the relation between sexual orientation, age and internet use.     

The Internet Jurisdiction Risk of Cloud Computing

Businesses currently use cloud-computing services with the uncertainty of jurisdiction, should legal action be initiated. Jurisdiction is the authority of a court to hear and decide a specific legal action. While standards, treaties and case law are developing worldwide, there currently is no simple test to determine jurisdiction for internet activities in the United States (US) or internationally, necessitating businesses to take the initiative to address cloud computing jurisdiction risk. Based upon our analysis of the applicable legal theories, we present recommended approaches for businesses to address cloud computing risks.     

E-file adoption: A study of U.S. taxpayers’ intentions

The United States Congress has set ambitious goals for the diffusion of e-government initiatives. One of congress’ goals for the 2007 tax year was for 80% of tax and informational returns to be filed electronically (IRS., 2004). In 2008, 90 million Americans choose to e-file (IRS., 2009); however, Congress’ goal of 80% adoption has still fallen short. This paper integrates the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model, online trust, perceived risk, and optimism bias into a comprehensive model of e-file adoption. To empirically test the model a survey is administered to 260 United States taxpayers. Structural equation modeling is used to evaluate relationships between these concepts and intention to use. Results indicate performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and optimism bias all have a significant impact on e-file intention. Trust in the internet and trust in the e-file provider were shown to significantly influence perceived risk. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

The communications decency Act and the karma of chaos — Part 1

When the FBI set about its nationwide investigation of online pornography, it landed its first prime catch in February 1996. John Delmarle pleaded guilty to transmitting sexually explicit pictures of children through America Online and drew a five-year prison term in New York Federal court.¹ Then in mid July, a Federal grand jury in San Jose, California charged 16 people in the United States and abroad with conspiracy to possess and distribute child pornography. The defendants were members of the ‘Orchid Club’, an online paedophilia club, which inducted its members by requiring accounts of their sexual experiences with children. In one instance, members chatted electronically as two of the men molested a 10-year-old girl. At least eight children were molested in connection with the club and although 13 members were arrested and charged, three others have not yet been identified and are known only by their computer aliases.²     

美国国家信息安全战略解析

计算机与互联网的迅猛发展,在给国家带来利益的同时,也对依赖其进行的国家关键信息系统和网络基础设施带来了巨大的威胁,使得信息安全成为涉及到国家安全的战略问题。本文以美国为解析对象,从分析美国国家信息安全面临的威胁着手,简要阐述了美国现行的国家信息安全战略,介绍了美国国家信息安全保障框架,重点分析了美国国家信息安全战略坚持的原则。     

Social desirability effects on computerized and paper-and-pencil questionnaires

The objectives of the present study were to determine the impact of computer administration of questionnaires on impression management (IM) and self-deceptive enhancement (SDE) and on the disclosure of sensitive information such as alcohol use and risky sex. College students (N = 301) completed several questionnaires in either a computer-administered or paper-and-pencil condition. Respondents who completed the survey on the computer scored significantly higher on SDE than those completing the survey on paper. No differences were found for IM. Respondents in the computer condition also reported a higher level of alcohol consumption and riskier sexual behaviors than those in the paper-and-pencil condition. It is possible that computer administration of surveys creates a social situation that produces a sense of disinhibition in respondents, and this sense of disinhibition may lead to greater reports of risky behaviors.     

Gender differences and the effects of perceived internet privacy on self-reports of sexual behavior and sociosexuality

The use of the Internet for conducting research has found that the level of anonymity intrinsic to web-based surveys is useful in deterring various participant biases. Though, concerns about Internet privacy could interfere with the effects of perceived anonymity and influence how a person responds. In this study, participants were asked to take an Internet survey and then were randomly assigned to conditions with varying degrees of implied privacy in which they answered questions about their desire for casual sex (sociosexuality) and their lifetime sexual partners. Only in the condition without any threat to the participant’s anonymity was there no difference between men and women’s reports of their sexual behavior. However, in every condition men reported having a significantly higher sociosexuality than women. Findings are consistent with both the biologic and gender-biased explanations in differences of self-report for sexual information. Implications for social constraints and Internet based research are discussed.     

“Love the Way You Lie”: Sexting deception in romantic relationships

In this study, we examined the prevalence of lying during sexting in a sample of 155 young adult college students. More than one third (37%) of those who had ever had a committed relationship and approximately half (48%) of active sexters (i.e., those who had ever sent a sexual text message) had lied to their committed partners during sexting about what they were wearing, doing, or both. Most people (67%) lied to serve their partner in some way (e.g., make it better for their partner) but some (33%) lied to serve themselves (e.g., they were bored). Additionally, lying during sexting was much more common among women than men: 45% of women and 24% of men had lied during sexting with committed partners. When attachment characteristics were considered, attachment avoidance predicted lying during sexting among active sexters, even after controlling for gender. Therefore, lying during sexting, just like pretending orgasm in a face-to-face context, is more likely to occur among those with insecure attachments to relationship partners. We discuss the similarities and differences between sexual deception in face-to-face and CMC contexts and propose future directions for this research.     

Modeling online service discontinuation with nonparametric agents

The internet and world wide web are an increasingly important resource, both as a market and as an information source, to both individual users and business entities. An estimated 120 million active web users exist in the United States alone. Access to these electronic marketplaces and information sources is accomplished through either a direct internet connection or through a service provider. Internet service providers (ISPs) enable internet and web access for most of these users either via dial-up modems (62.2 percent), or DSL connections (17 percent). Customers of ISPs frequently switch or discontinue service. The model selection perspective is used to extend previous work in this area through the development of a multi-agent system with neural network wrappers. The nonparametric (neural network) agents identify over 92 percent of those users that either stop or change service, which is a 15 percent increase over previous models.     

Internet pornography and relationship quality: A longitudinal study of within and between partner effects of adjustment,sexual satisfaction and sexually explicit internet material among newly-weds

Several studies have established a negative relation between the use of sexually explicit Internet material (SEIM) and relationship quality. While most studies imply SEIM use decreases relationship quality, the opposite might also be true: lower relationship quality might increase people’s SEIM use. This article aims to shed light on the directionality of the relation between SEIM use and relationship quality among married couples. We used prospective dyadic data to examine the short- and long-term relation between SEIM use, sexual satisfaction, and relationship adjustment among adult SEIM users and their partners. The results showed that, among husbands, adjustment and SEIM use are negatively and reciprocally related. Also, sexual satisfaction among husbands predicted a decrease in their wives’ SEIM one year later, while wives’ SEIM did not affect their husbands’ sexual satisfaction. The findings have important implications for theories on the link between relationship quality and SEIM use.     

Is exposure to online content depicting risky behavior related to viewers' own risky behavior offline?

There are public and governmental concerns that social media may encourage risky behavior in the offline environment. Using international survey data from 412 young adults aged between 18 and 25 years of age (M = 21.20 years, SD = 2.31 years), this study demonstrates that there is a relationship between exposure to online content depicting risky behavior and users’ own offline risky behavior. This relationship was found for six behaviors: drug use, excessive alcohol use, disordered eating, self-harm, violence to others, and dangerous pranks. A borderline effect was found for two further behaviors: unprotected sex and sex with a stranger. The relationship between content depicting disordered eating and offline behavior was only significant for females; suggesting that female users may be more vulnerable to effects of viewing content depicting disordered eating habits, and/or use social media content to find material related to their existing behavior. No other gender moderation effects were found. The findings provide preliminary evidence that social media use may influence offline risky behavior in young adults.