Cybersex can take place in a number of contexts that blur the boundaries of pornography, voyeurism, and romance. The paper begins by rejecting the overemphasis on representational questions concerning cyberspace that have dominated research, arguing that this focus has been a product of the seductive lure of interactive virtuality. Instead, the discussion questions the ontological status of cybersexual encounters by exploring a number of computer-mediated environments. It is argued that erotic pleasures discovered through the Internet inhabit an ambiguous (non)serious metaphorical space. To conceptualise these experiences, the term ‘cyber-sex-tourism’ is introduced to a) explain these leisure spaces, utilising Nakamura’s (2002) notion of ‘identity tourism’ and b) to capture the ambiguity of sex on the Internet, contrasting the sanitised and often educational legitimacy of ‘cybersex’, with the morally suspect ‘sex-tourism’ industry. The paper describes the seductiveness of virtual space as an explanation for how cyberspace has become infused with intimacy and how this is challenged by the emergence of web-cams in contrast with visual avatars, which perpetuate the fictional, non-seriousness of a relationship. The final part of this paper discusses how the interactive content of many cyber-sexual encounters raises challenging moral dilemmas.

Reference

Nakamura, L. (2002). Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. London & New York, Routledge.