Sexuality and the internet: lots of hyp—only a little data - otheses - Editorial

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 2001 by Yitzchak M. Binik

When I was first asked to guest edit a special issue of The Journal of Sex Research on the topic of sexuality and the Internet, I thought this would be a relatively easy task. Several books on the topic had just appeared (see book review section), and there had been a slow but steady stream of journal articles. It was easy to generate quite a long list of potential contributors, and most readily agreed to write an original piece for a special issue. JSR also sent out a call for independent submissions and eight manuscripts were received. I planned for approximately 10 solicited articles and several independently submitted ones. Then the problems began.

Several of the solicited manuscripts received highly critical reviews. Rather than make the suggested changes, several authors withdrew. None of the independently submitted manuscripts survived the review process. From my perspective, it became apparent that there was not as much new data and theory as I had originally believed. John Delamater and I reluctantly scrapped the idea of a "special issue" and replaced it with a "special section" including six articles, four book reviews, and one review of "web resources for sex researchers." The authors are an international group and include both senior and junior (one graduate student) contributors. This group of authors probably reflects the widespread interest in the Internet across the Western world and its particular influence on the young.

The first article by Stern and Handel places in historical context some of the scientific and societal issues raised by the easy availability of sexually explicit material on the Internet. It does this by examining how North American society has previously dealt with technological innovation resulting in more explicit and frequent portrayals of sexuality in print, movies, radio, TV and videos. Mustanski then provides us with research examples and guidelines relating to the collection of sexual survey data on the Internet. The potential ease of collecting such data via the Internet raises both exciting possibilities and worrying ethical and methodological problems. McKenna, Green, and Smith show that the Internet may serve as an important medium for sexual self-expression, particularly for those who lack or are constrained in the expression of their real-world sexual relationships. Their findings have important theoretical implications for understanding the process of identity formation and for helping those who feel marginalized. Fisher and Barak provide a theoretically based social psychological approach to understanding the use and popularity of sexually explicit materials on the Internet. Their approach provides a thoughtful antidote to some of the popular and politically based hysteria that seems to dominate public discussion. In a separate article, the same authors (Barak and Fisher) use a similar approach in reviewing and evaluating the potential and possibilities for sex education via the Internet. Finally, Griffiths critically reviews the limited data concerning sexual addiction by discussing this concept in the context of so-called behavioral, non-chemical, or technological addictions. Clinicians dealing with clients who get overinvolved with Internet-based sexual stimuli or in "cyber-affairs" will appreciate the difficulty in defining these concepts.

These articles highlight some of the issues and challenges that sex researchers and therapists will face with respect to the Internet. For example, although it is now possible to easily and economically collect sexual survey data from very large and geographically dispersed samples, this does not insure the representativeness of the data. Unless this sampling problem is solved, our theories may shift from being based on college sophomores to being based on "Internet addicts." In addition to sampling issues, it is becoming apparent that one can carry out many social psychological or cognitive experiments without ever seeing the subjects. So far, the data collected in these virtual laboratories seems to parallel data collected in the traditional way (McGraw, Tew, & Williams, 2000). As sex researchers, we should now ask ourselves whether or when we actually need to see our subjects. Equally important are investigations of the psychosocial (sexual) effects of interpersonal interaction on the Internet. It appears that surfing the Net has become a major recreational activity, and much of this activity involves communicating and forming relationships with others. Initial studies (Kraut et al., 1998) have shown that careful examination of the effects of such interaction may challenge our preconceived notions and theoretical biases.

One of the unfulfilled promises of the Internet is the delivery of (sexual) health information and therapeutic services (Jerome et al., 2000). In principle, using Internet technology could solve numerous problems, ranging from the storing of health records to the delivery of expertise to remote areas. Although there are several excellent sex education sites available, there are a greater number with misleading or inaccurate information. It has been technically possible to deliver sex therapy via the Internet for a quite a while but there has been little progress in implementing high quality systems (Binik, Cantor, Ochs, & Meana, 1997). It appears that entrepreneurs can make more money from misinformation and hype than from the delivery of high-quality education and therapy. With time, either the entrepreneurial problem will be solved or government support will create an appropriate service delivery infrastructure.