New Skills Required to Operate in the World of Cybersex: Research Suggests Internet Increases Risk

Research results presented at the 2003 National HIV Prevention Conference, held in July in Atlanta, suggest that community-based organizations; health care, treatment and prevention clinics; and other public health organizations should consider outreach programs to reach MSM who use the Internet to meet anonymous sexual partners. The California Department of Health Services has collected surveillance data that show an increasing trend of MSM engaging in high-risk sexual activities with men they meet online.

Both syphilis and HIV cases have risen in the past two years among MSM who cruise the Internet for sex partners. Twenty-three percent of California MSM with secondary or primary syphilis in 2002 met their partners on the Web, versus 21 percent who met in bathhouses, and 9 percent who met in sex clubs.

An online study by researchers at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California-San Francisco, found three out of four MSM who meet new partners on the Internet reported having recent sex, including unprotected sex, within the previous two months with someone they met online. Eleven percent had HIV, and 39 percent reported unprotected anal intercourse.

Internet Sexuality Information Services Inc. of San Francisco conducted a study in which outreach counselors -- who were also the researchers -- answered an average of 15 questions per hour in a Gay.com chatroom. Posting a banner ad campaign online, ISIS facilitated 32,370 links between people seeking information and the San Francisco Department of Health Web site. During 57 hours of Internet outreach on three other sites, researchers conducted 212 exchanges of prevention information. Thirty-five coupons for free syphilis testing, which had been distributed online, were redeemed. The researchers found that one-on-one outreach in chatrooms was more effective than larger online presentations.

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