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Dutch study: A quarter of boys, 20 percent of girls claim to have 'cyber sex'
2 June 2006
Webcams and online chatting have sparked a new "sexual revolution" among youth, Dutch researchers said Thursday.
In a large but nonscientific survey, nearly a quarter of males and 20 percent of females said they had recently had "cyber sex" - defined as pretending to have actual sex while sending each other sexually explicit messages or images. Three quarters of girls and 80 percent of boys said they had flirted online.
"Just like the sexual revolution in the 1960s and 70s of the past century, the Internet has made whole new forms of sexual relations possible, and they are being used for the first time en masse by a new generation of youth," researchers said in a summary of their findings.
However, the survey found that 26 percent of girls and 10 percent of boys said they had had a negative experience related to online sex, ranging from inappropriate sexually tinged remarks to outright harassment.
The survey was commissioned by Royal KPN NV, the Netherlands' largest Internet provider, in cooperation with "My Child Online," a parents' interest web site.
My Child Online editor Justine Pardoen said she was surprised by the results.
"Parents talk only about the danger and risks of the Internet; they are very focused on how to protect their children from online predators," she said "These data suggest they should be thinking about something else: that the kids are all 'doing it' online already."
She said that parents should not panic, but start adjusting to the new reality.
"Parents need to teach their kids about sex and the Internet the same way they do about the dangers of alcohol or drugs, and they can't postpone it," she said. "From the very first time children use the Internet, they're going to be confronted with sex."
Hanneke de Graaf, a researcher for the private company hired to conduct the survey, acknowledged there were noteworthy problems with the data.
Thousands of volunteers for the study were recruited from several of the country's largest youth-interest Web sites and online forums and guaranteed anonymity.
In the end, 10,900 responses were deemed complete enough to be used. Responses were delivered by e-mail or forms filled out online. Among males, the average age of the respondents was 17.2; for girls, 16.1.
Far more girls responded than boys, and respondents were disproportionately heavy Internet users, wealthy, and educated. Also, ethnic minority groups were over-represented, she said.
"Sexual behavior surveys are notoriously difficult to carry out, and the biggest problem here is not knowing what the people who are not responding would say," she said. "However, the data are interesting for what they say about trends."
The survey duplicated one well-known real-world phenomenon: either boys exaggerate their level of sexual activity, or girls underestimate theirs.
About half of each group said they had had a real-world date with someone they met online. However, 32 percent of boys said they had actual, physical sex with a girl they met online, while just 12 percent of girls said they had ever done the same.
Reference
Dutch study: A quarter of boys, 20 percent of girls claim to have 'cyber sex'. The Sydney Morning Herald[online] 2 June. Available from: http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Dutch-study-A-quarter-of-boys-20-percent-of-girls-claim-to-havecyber-sex/2006/06/02/1148956492604.html [Accessed 12 June 2006]