Cybersex
Cybersex, also called computer sex, Internet sex, netsex, online sex and, colloquially, cybering, is a virtual sexual encounter in which two or more people connected remotely through the Internet exchange sexually explicit messages, audio, images or video describing or participating in a sexual experience. Older terms include mudsex, TinySex and conversex. In one form, this fantasy sex is accomplished by the participants describing their actions and responding to their chat partners in a mostly written form designed to stimulate their own sexual feelings and fantasies.
Cybersex sometimes includes real life masturbation. 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 can occur either within the context of existing or intimate relationships, e.g. among lovers who are geographically separated, or among individuals who have no prior knowledge of one another and meet in virtual spaces or cyberspaces and may even remain anonymous to one another.
Modern cybersex may involve text messaging, sexting, voice messages, photographs, live video, webcams or combinations of these. Smartphones and video calling have made video-based cybersex considerably easier than during the early years of Internet chat rooms.
Channels used to initiate cybersex are not necessarily exclusively devoted to that subject, and participants in an Internet chat or dating service may receive messages proposing sexual conversation, exchanging explicit photographs or moving to a private video chat. Older expressions include "Wanna cyber?", "Wanna cam?" and requests for "C2C"/"C4C" ("cam to cam" and "cam for cam", respectively).
Cybersex was traditionally performed in Internet chat rooms such as IRC, talkers and web chats and on instant messaging systems. It can also be performed using webcams, voice and video calling, dating apps, social networks, private messaging services, online games and virtual worlds such as Second Life.
The exact definition of cybersex—specifically, whether real-life masturbation must be taking place for the online sex act to count as cybersex—is open to interpretation. The term is now commonly used broadly for interactive sexual activity conducted remotely through digital communication.
Cybersex has also been common in online role-playing games, MUDs and MMORPGs, although acceptance of sexual activity varies greatly between individual games and communities. Some virtual worlds have specifically catered to adult users and sexual roleplaying.
Cybersex may also be accomplished through the use of avatars in a multiuser software environment. It is often called mudsex or netsex in MUDs. In TinyMUD variants, particularly MUCKs, the term TinySex (TS) was traditionally very common.
Though text-based cybersex has been in practice for decades, the increased popularity of webcams, smartphones and high-speed Internet dramatically increased the possibilities for online partners using two-way video connections to expose themselves to each other online, giving cybersex a much more visual aspect.
There are numerous commercial webcam websites that allow adult performers to masturbate, strip, talk or perform sexual acts on camera while viewers watch. Using similar services, couples and amateur performers may also perform on camera for others.
Cybersex differs from phone sex in that it can combine text, photographs, audio and live video while offering a potentially greater degree of anonymity and allowing participants to find partners more easily. A good deal of non-commercial cybersex takes place between partners who meet online. Commercial cybersex is also widespread, particularly through webcam model services and other paid adult platforms, where Internet sex workers may interact privately with customers in exchange for money.
More recently, virtual reality, interactive sex toys and Internet-connected sexual devices have further blurred the distinction between purely virtual cybersex and physical sexual stimulation. Some devices can be remotely controlled by a partner through an Internet connection.
An example of traditional text-based cybersex:
"I love you, too."~ *I lick slowly up the base of your neck. Nipping at your ear gently, my lips curl into a gentle smirk.*
Contents
Uses of cybersex
Cybersex can be utilised to write co-written original fiction and fanfiction by role-playing in third person, in forums or communities usually known by the name of 'A Shared Dream'. It can also be used to gain experience for solo writers who want to write more realistic sex scenes, by exchanging ideas.
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 sexual roleplay that allows the participants 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. 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. Due to this difference, such roleplayers typically prefer the term erotic roleplay rather than cybersex to describe it.
In "real cybering" personas often remain in character throughout the entire life of the contact, which can include evolving into phone sex and real-life encounters while in character, as a form of improvisation or performance. Often these personas develop complex past histories for their characters to make the fantasy and roleplay more lifelike.
Cybersex is also commonly used by couples in long-distance relationships. Video calls, private messages and sexting allow partners who are geographically separated to maintain a sexual element in their relationship.
Text cybersex and sexting
Traditional cybersex was primarily text based. Participants typed descriptions of what they were doing, imagining or wanted their partner to do.
This remains common, although sexting has partly replaced the older terminology of "cybering". Sexting commonly involves sexually suggestive or explicit text messages, photographs and videos exchanged through smartphones or messaging services.
Cybersex and sexting overlap but are not exactly identical. Sexting can consist simply of sending an explicit photograph or message, while cybersex usually implies an interactive sexual exchange between participants.
Webcam sex
Webcam sex is one of the most common visual forms of cybersex.
Two people can communicate privately by video while masturbating, stripping or performing sexual acts for each other. Couples separated by distance may use webcam sex privately, while strangers may meet specifically for online sexual encounters.
Commercial webcam sex is an important part of the modern sex industry. A webcam model may perform for viewers in public rooms or private paid sessions.
Virtual reality and connected sex toys
New technology has expanded cybersex beyond text, photographs and conventional video.
Virtual reality can place participants in simulated sexual environments represented by avatars. Virtual worlds can also allow users to interact sexually without showing their real appearance.
Internet-connected sex toys, sometimes called teledildonic devices, can allow one person to remotely control another person's vibrator or other compatible device.
These technologies can create physical stimulation controlled by somebody who may be hundreds or thousands of kilometres away.
AI and virtual partners
Artificial intelligence has introduced another form of online sexual interaction. AI chatbots and virtual companions can participate in romantic, flirtatious or sexual conversations and may be combined with generated characters, voices or images.
Unlike traditional cybersex, interaction with an AI companion does not necessarily involve another human participant. For this reason, AI sexual interaction is sometimes considered a separate category rather than cybersex in the traditional sense.
AI-generated images and deepfake technology have also created new privacy and consent concerns, particularly when a real person's appearance is used to create sexual material without permission.
Advantages
Cybersex provides various advantages:
- Since cybersex does not itself require physical sexual contact, it avoids pregnancy and the physical transmission of sexually transmitted diseases between remotely located participants. It can provide a way for adults to explore sexual thoughts and emotions without meeting physically.
- Cybersex allows real-life partners who are physically separated to continue to be sexually intimate. In geographically separated relationships, it can function to sustain the sexual dimension of a relationship in which the partners see each other only infrequently face to face. It can also allow partners to discuss desires or fantasies that they feel uncomfortable bringing up otherwise.
- Cybersex allows for sexual exploration. For example, it can enable participants to act out fantasies which they would not act out, or which might not be realistically possible, in real life through sexual roleplay.
- It takes less effort and fewer resources on the Internet than in real life to connect to another person with similar sexual interests. Furthermore, cybersex allows for immediate sexual encounters, along with fast response and gratification.
- Cybersex allows each user considerable control. For example, either party can normally end a text, voice or webcam session immediately.
- Anonymous or avatar-based environments may allow people to experiment with fantasies, identities or sexual roles without necessarily revealing their real-world identity.
Privacy and safety
Although cybersex does not carry the pregnancy or physical STD risks of in-person sex, it has significant digital privacy risks.
Participants should remember that anything visible on a screen can potentially be copied or recorded. Photographs, videos, chat messages and webcam sessions may be saved without the knowledge of the other participant.
A person claiming to be anonymous may also be identifiable through usernames, photographs, social-media accounts or other information revealed during conversation.
One particularly serious risk is sextortion. A scammer may persuade a person to send intimate photographs or appear naked on webcam, secretly record the material and then threaten to send it to the victim's family, friends, employer or social-media contacts unless money is paid.
Romance scammers and fake profiles may also use sexual conversations to gain trust or obtain explicit material.
Never assume that a disappearing message, private chat or encrypted conversation means that the recipient cannot make a copy or screen recording.
Participants should also be cautious about showing identifiable details such as their face, home, workplace, documents, location or other personal information when communicating with strangers.
Cybersex should only take place between consenting adults. Sexual communication or exchange of explicit images involving minors can have extremely serious legal consequences.
Criticism
Cybersex is often criticized because the partners frequently have little verifiable knowledge about each other. However, since for many the primary point of cybersex is the plausible simulation of sexual activity, this knowledge is not always desired or necessary, and anonymity may sometimes be part of the attraction.
Privacy concerns are a major difficulty with cybersex, since participants may log, screenshot or record the interaction without the other's knowledge and possibly disclose it to others or the public.
The growth of smartphones and social media has made this problem considerably more serious because intimate photographs and videos can potentially be copied and distributed to large numbers of people within minutes.
There is disagreement over whether cybersex is a form of infidelity. While it does not involve physical contact, some partners regard sexual conversations, webcam sex or exchanging nude photographs with another person as cheating. Cybersex can therefore cause relationship problems when partners have different expectations about what is acceptable.
Compulsive use of cybersex, pornography, webcam services or sexual chat can also interfere with relationships, work and everyday life for some users.
See Also
- Age of consent | Safe sex | STD | HIV/AIDS
