CyberSexual Addiction
Sexual compulsivity over the Internet is not just a result of deviant individuals engaged in acting out, but with remarkable speed, the mental health field has witnessed those with no prior criminal or psychiatric history engaged in such behavior online. The ACE Model of Cybersexual Addiction is used to explain how the Internet creates a cultural climate of permissiveness that actually serves to encourage and validate sexually deviant behavior. The ACE Model examines the Anonymity of online interactions that serves to increase the likelihood of the behavior, the Convenience of cyberporn and sexually-oriented chat rooms making it easily available to users, and finally, the Escape from mental tension derived from the experience which serves to reinforce the behavior leading to compulsivity.
The anonymity of electronic transactions provides the user with a greater sense of perceived control over the content, tone, and nature of the online sexual experience. Unlike real life sexual experiences, a woman can quickly change partners if her cyber-lover isn’t very good or a man can log off after his orgasm without any long good-byes. What if a man privately wondered what it would be like to have sex with another man? What if a woman always wanted to try bondage? Within the anonymous context of cyberspace, conventional messages about sex are eliminated allowing users to play out hidden or repressed sexual fantasies in a private lab, without the fear of being caught. For anyone who has ever been curious about bondage, group sex, urination, homosexuality, or cross-dressing, cybersex offers a private, safe, and anonymous way to explore those fantasies. Therefore, individuals are more likely to sexually experiment as online users feel encouraged to engage in their adult fantasies and validated by the acceptance of the cyberspace culture.
This leads to the second variable of the ACE Model, the convenience of cyberporn and adult chat sites provides an immediately available vehicle to easily fall into compulsive patterns of online use. Industry estimates that 9.6 million users, or about 15% of all Web users, logged on to the 10 most popular sex sites in the month of April 1998 alone. There are an estimated 70,000 sex-related Web site with 200 new adult web sites that include pornography and interactive chat rooms are being added per day (Swhartz, 1998). The proliferation of sexually oriented chat rooms provides a mechanism that encourages a person’s initial exploration. A curious husband or wife may secretly step into the “Dominance and Submission Room”, the “Fetish Room”, or the “Bisexual Room”, only to be initially shocked at the erotic dialogue, but at the same time, sexually stimulated by it. The ease of availability serves to promote sexual experimentation among those who normally would not engage in such behavior. The most vulnerable individuals seem to be those who suffer from low self-esteem, a severely distorted body image, untreated sexual dysfunction, or a prior sexual addiction.
