One-handed typing may be the order of the day for gay men seeking sex and relationships. But is it becoming associated with 'high-risk' sexual behaviour? Edwin J Bernard logs on...
The internet. Brilliant idea. A boundless international gateway to knowledge. A revolution in communication. A truly democratic global community. So, what do we use it for? Sex. Shags. Finding dates and mates.
 Image: Raffaele Teo. Logos courtesy of UK.GAY.COM and GAYDAR.CO.UK |
The rise and rise of gay.com's chatrooms and Gaydar's interactive personals means that more and more gay men are using the internet for sex. Hard drives are filled to bursting with erotic - and exotic - images as virtual sex fulfils fantasies. Traditional cruising grounds empty as online meets burgeon.
"It cuts down on the booze bill," says one user. "You can be as anonymous as you want," says another. "It's convenient," adds a third.
And what about using the net as an introductory meeting place before real sex? According to the 2002 Gay Men's Survey in London Gyms, the use of the internet for meeting sexual partners has grown by 50 per cent from the previous 12 months to become the third most popular way of finding a shag after bars/clubs and saunas.
"You can be yourself more," says shyleatherguy. "You can say what you like - something that is not as easy to do in person in a bar or a club. You don't have to be brave to message someone 'cold' whereas you might think twice about approaching a stranger in person."
"It's a more direct way of finding someone with similar sexual interests and fetishes, which is not always apparent standing looking at someone in a bar," adds bigmusclesuk.
"It's safe," says backfur4me. "No axe-murderers in your own front room! You can chat to people from all over the world and find shared interests with people you would not have even thought about. You are, in effect, picking from a greater range of people."
 Image: Raffeale Teo. Logos courtesy of UK.GAY.COM and GAYDAR.CO.UK |
So who is using the internet for sex? According to the 2002 Gay Men's Survey of London Gyms, lots of HIV positive men. In fact, 65 per cent of the positive men surveyed said they used the internet to look for sexual partners compared with 49 per cent of HIV negative men and 29 per cent of those men who had never taken an HIV test.
Of concern, however, is the finding that "using the internet to seek sexual partners was associated with high-risk sexual behaviour among HIV positive and HIV negative men." That means that the researchers found a significant association between using the internet and having unprotected anal sex with partners who were not of the same HIV status.
However, as Will Nutland, Gay Men's Health Promotion Manager at Terrence Higgins Trust, points out: "What we have to be careful of doing is research looking at a snapshot of men online and then transferring it to everyone online. There's a huge online community and to say that going online equates to increased HIV risk...well, you can't get HIV down a modem!"
"What we do know is that the few studies done have shown this association between seeking sex on the internet and high risk behaviour. That raises all sorts of questions to which currently we don't have answers," says Professor Jonathan Elford at City University's Institute of Health Sciences, the leading UK researcher into gay men and the use of the internet for sex.
Is it about the hardcore group of men who are already having lots of sexual partners, who are simply able to have more sexual partners using the internet? Or is it the internet itself that is the problem?
This question will be asked in a new two-year study lead by Prof Elford and funded by the Medical Research Council. There will be 2,500 gay and bisexual men taking part at four different locations: gyms, an HIV testing clinic, an HIV treatment clinic, and those visiting the Gaydar and gay.com chatrooms. They will be asked detailed questions that will help figure out if using the internet for sex is riskier - healthwise - than traditional meeting places.
"We're also hoping that the data will begin to tell us something about how people use the internet and find out how acceptable people find [safer sex] interventions on the internet."
This is welcome news for Will Nutland. "Right now we don't have enough evidence about how effective internet interventions are because we don't have enough information about why people are having unsafe sex in the first place," he says.
The internet is filled with information about safer sex - not to mention those pop-ups and banners on gay.com and Gaydar - but how effective is it? Do we ever use the internet for safer sex information?
The internet is filled with information about safer sex - not to mention those pop-ups and banners on gay.com and Gaydar - but how effective is it? Do we ever use the internet for safer sex information?
"Yes," says sexyozguyinuk, "but sometimes it can be information overload. I prefer to read a mag in one of the pubs and if I want or feel that I need more information, I then look on the net."
"No," adds hornyoungbear, "and I don't trust the information on the net as there are no governing bodies to control the information."
"I prefer to rely on medical advice from the STD clinic attended in person for regular check ups," says healthypozguy.
What about the internet companies themselves? Mark Watson of uk.gay.com considers his site to be first and foremost an online community. Together with THT, Watson created the very popular Sex Channel, which provides a lot of information about the ins and outs of gay sex, with a subtle focus on safer sex information, and so far more than 200,000 gay men have read at least one article there.
Watson's biggest conundrum, however, has been the gay.com bareback chatroom, which last year became a lightning-rod in the debate over whether the internet was, at worst, creating a new interest, or at best, facilitating unprotected anal intercourse.
"We agonised over the bareback room for a very long time" admits Watson. "We want to be socially responsible - the site is meant to be a safe place for people to connect."
While uk.gay.com's US parent removed the bareback room, the UK remained defiant with a member-generated version - until gay.com removed all member-generated chatrooms. Now the chat system is global, there is no longer a bareback room on any country's gay.com site.
Gaydar, on the other hand, have not agonised about the issue at all. "We're not judgemental, we're not political, we're just Gaydar," says Demos Strouthos, Gaydar.co.uk's marketing manager. "We have standards but we're not people's parents. We trust and hope that people will use their own minds and intuition to take responsibility for themselves...If people want to put 'I'm into bareback' on their profiles, everyone knows the consequences. If you don't like that profile, switch it off."
However, according to Demos, Gaydar is planning on adding button-like links to safer sex counselling organisations in chatrooms within the next three or four months.
While gay.com's profiles include a place to mention HIV status, Gaydar's has a space to say how often people practise 'safe sex'.
But of 400,000+ UK profiles, only around 500 say there are looking for bareback or never practise safe sex.
"There are very few men who never have protected sex. This idea that there is a huge group of gay men who always have unprotected sex is just a fantasy," comments THT's Nutland.
"I think the bareback debate is a red herring," Watson argues. "It accounts for a very small percentage of our users. There's this idea that somehow people are using the internet for unsafe sex. I disagree. The safest sex is honest and negotiated sex. And the internet allows you to be honest, and to negotiate your sex beforehand. I think it's a lot safer and more healthy than just getting drunk in a bar and going home with someone that you don't know and have not spoken to about these issues."
There is concern, however, about internet use as a popular way for HIV positive men to find other positive partners for unprotected anal intercourse.
"I'm more worried about the idea that two positive men having bareback sex is acceptable," says Watson, whose site recently partnered with Positive Nation to provide the latest HIV news in a weekly email newsletter. He insists: "People need as much information as they can get."
"One of the positive aspects of the internet is that it does allow HIV positive men to make contact with other HIV positive men very easily for all sorts of reasons," says Prof Elford, "which might include having sex with one another but it might also be around treatment information, advice, and social connections." We use the net a heck of a lot, so why not make the most of it?
