Internet sex infections

But really, what distinguishes online seduction from dating services, personal ads, singles' clubs, your local bar or ones like good ol' incestuous Cheers, where everyone knew a little more than your name?

"You may be able to pick up two partners at a bar in one evening; you can pick up more than that on the Internet in the same amount of time," says Mary McFarlane, a research psychologist at the CDC in Atlanta. "You can schedule, you can get on the Internet and look for partners in places where you'll be traveling to."

So cruisers on the Internet may get laid more often, by more people. But Bull cautions that not everyone is so lucky. "I think that people who were already having a lot of sex are having a little more. It doesn't mean more sex for everybody."

But the Internet has definitely added a jolt to the love life of Eric, a 48-year-old man who asked that his real name not be used. He regularly posts to an online bulletin board, and when he set out on a cross-country trip, one woman invited him to swing by to see her. "To my surprise and immense joy, the relationship quickly went beyond date to intimacy," he says. He didn't use a condom. But he never does.

"I'm the same person with someone online as with other people. Either I have an STD or I don't. And I'm not aware that I do."

The main theme of Sexquiz.org, McFarlane says, is that the Internet is adding efficiency to people's lives. What the Web has done for, say, ordering books and buying tickets, it is now doing for delivering ass. But does Lance, whose online flirtation led to six great days in bed, believe he had sex any faster because the relationship was born in that zippy world of T-3s?

"No," he says as he bursts into laughter, "it's been since high school that I waited nine months before having sex with someone."

Jokes aside, any work to prevent the spread of STDs is needed. And the Internet is an ideal medium for disseminating information quickly, especially sexual advice. Many people, particularly teenagers, are embarrassed to ask questions in person. Honest, accurate information about sex, risk and self-protection, like the material put out by the San Francisco Health Department with Gay.com, may be lifesaving. Although it may seem obvious that wearing a condom or a dental dam offers important protection against disease, not enough people do it either in the online world or offline, as Kim's research confirms.

If researchers conclude that online encounters put people at higher risk, they could take measures to make it a safer place, so the Internet is once again our friend. They could post warnings in sexually explicit chat rooms, Bull says. They could refer people to Web sites that offer information on the risks of unprotected sex.

But you have to wonder where it will end. Should we roll on a condom before we sit at the computer? Wear gloves before we finger that little mouse? Invest federal funds to find out if open sores grow to the beautiful, annoying sound of a modem connecting?

Traditionally, STDs are more likely to be spread by three factors: sexual exposure to an infected person, the rate you change sexual partners and the time it takes a disease to incubate. It's the second piece of this equation that interests Bull. She's also curious about how diseases can spread from one region to another. Since the Internet is basically a global lounge, facilitating relationships among people all over the Earth, from a public health perspective it can be a medium that helps spread STDs.

Consider this recent post in a Gay.com chat room:

"Visiting L.A. June 17, masculine, muscular, 34 waist, 44 chest, looking for a nice guy, pvt me!" Los Angeles recently had an outbreak of syphilis. What if this guy contracts it there, then transmits it back home?

"I think [the Internet] wrinkles up the map because people are actually picking up each other long distance," says McFarlane. "You arrange a contact while traveling to Philadelphia and then go back to your home area, then the STD won't be in neat geographic pockets. One of the implications is that it will spread more widely."

The Internet certainly wrinkled the map for Lance. How often does a guy in Alaska get a hot visit from a stranger in Colorado? A month has passed since her stay, and things have apparently cooled. She's ready to ditch her life and move in with him. But he doesn't want to commit. It seems that even in the wild, wild space of the Internet, old gender roles still rule.

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