Inadvertent exposure to pornography on the Internet: Implications of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks for child development and families

A request from the National Academies to prepare a presentation for a Workshop on Non-Technical Strategies to Protect Youth from Inappropriate Material on the Internet occurred before much was known about children, youth, and the Internet. The author's strategy was to investigate websites that cater to children and adolescents. The developmental issue of consumer socialization was raised by a visit to the Disney website. In contrast, the developmental issues of sexuality, aggression, and intergroup relations were raised by visits to chat rooms hosted by two different Internet Web portals. Examination of existing research literature, in conjunction with visits to the websites, led to the following conclusions: (1) Many parents are aware of the problems of making children the targets of commerce; however, they are quite unaware of the kind of social and cultural worlds young people are creating online. (2) Children and adolescents are not simply the targets of adult Internet creations; they are active participants in creating their own cybercultures, for example, in teen chat rooms. (3) The nature and norms of these cultures can be very much influenced by adult rules, regulations, and participatory monitoring. (4) The important developmental issues raised by this new medium are not unique to the Internet. For example, each psychosocial phenomenon from consumerism to sexuality to aggression has important manifestations in the culture at large.     

互联网——心理学研究的新工具

互联网作为一种新的工具,在心理学研究中得到越来越多的使用。文章介绍了基于互联网的心理学研究的历史和现状,并分析了这种新研究工具的优点,如更高的效度,多样化的被试,操作更方便更高效,费用更低廉等。同时也客观地指出了新研究工具的局限性,如并不是所有的心理学研究都可以在互联网上实现,控制不够严格等。但是作为一种新的研究工具,互联网应该得到心理学工作者更多的重视。     

So You Want to Do an Online Study: Ethics Considerations and Lessons Learned

The use of the Internet in conducting psychological research has become increasingly common over the past few decades, as Internet access has become more widespread. Although web-based work has a number of benefits, including lower cost, easy access to large samples, and strict standardization of administration, the limitations must also be considered. Among these limitations are the ethics concerns related to conducting psychological research online. These concerns include limitations in maintaining confidentiality, conducting thorough informed consent, and conducting valid assessment. Particular focus is given to the limitations inherent in conducting a fully automated online study. All of these limitations are discussed in detail through both a review of existing literature and the brief review of a recent study. The recent study identified areas in which participants struggled with completing a fully automated online task. This article discusses the ethics implications of Internet research as well as offering suggestions for researchers who intend to conduct web-based research, and thoughts on future directions as psychology moves forward in web-based research and assessment.     

Factors influencing evaluations of web site information

This study investigated the effect of first-person and third-person perceptions of web site information. Responses from a telephone survey of 226 participants in a stratified random sample indicated that (1) most participants had higher evaluations for television news than for news received on the Internet; (2) a third-person effect was present in that most respondents generally thought that other people found the Internet easier to use than they did, and that other people were more likely to believe Internet information and trust the sources of Internet information than they would. Also, (3), evaluations of information on a particular web site could be increased by providing links to other web sites on the same topic. Perhaps links to other web sites may serve as either a "referencing" function or a social confirmation function to increase evaluations of web site information.     

Collecting Narrative Data on Amazon's Mechanical Turk

Memory researchers collect data using Amazon's Mechanical Turk (AMT). Despite numerous reports documenting the reliability of data collected on this web site, no study of its uses for narrative memory research has been published. Participants reported narratives of stressful events and were recruited via AMT and in various formats with college students, including completing Internet surveys, typing in the presence of an experimenter, and verbal reports to the experimenter. Data were compared on linguistic indicators, event type reported, and questionnaire responses about these event narratives. AMT participants reported shorter event narratives than all groups of college students but reported stressful events that they self‐reported as more difficult than college students reporting via the Internet and used proportionally more negative emotion terms than college students reporting verbally to an experimenter. Factors such as context and demographics are considered, and recommendations are made for researchers using this web site. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nettersexuality: The Impact of Internet Pornography on Gay Male Sexual Expression and Identity

The Internet, as an integral part of global culture, has become a location offering a smorgasbord of pornographic images and films depicting multiple and fluid ways of being sexual. For males who identify as gay and/or queer, the Internet offers opportunities to explore same-sex sexualities in ways that have heretofore been challenging; thus, constructions of sexual identity can be interrogated, (re)examined, and (re)imagined. New explorations of sexualities may be the result of interface with Internet pornography, which opens spaces for not yet experienced ways of being sexual. Using qualitative methodology, this project engages the voices of three males who identify as gay and/or queer and focuses on how the Internet, particularly pornography on the Internet, impacts their sexual experiences and their sexual identities. Indeed, we argue here that the Internet does impact sexuality, and these men help to raise questions about what is possible with regard to sexuality and sexual identity.     

Legal Bans on Pro‐Suicide Web Sites: An Early Retrospective from Australia

There are worldwide concerns that pro‐suicide web sites may trigger suicidal behaviors among vulnerable individuals. In 2006, A ustralia became the first country to criminalize such sites, sparking heated debate. Concerns were expressed that the law casts the criminal net too widely; inappropriately interferes with the autonomy of those who wish to die; and has jurisdictional limitations, with off‐shore web sites remaining largely immune. Conversely, proponents point out that the law may limit access to domestic pro‐suicide web sites, raise awareness of Internet‐related suicide, mobilize community efforts to combat it, and serve as a powerful expression of societal norms about the promotion of suicidal behavior.     

Sexual Prejudice among Christian College Students, Denominational Teachings, and Personal Religious Beliefs

Although numerous studies have examined the role of religious tradition and religiosity on attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, the role of endorsement of denominational teachings has largely been overlooked, even though such teachings are often cited to explain study findings. To better understand the complex relationship between religion and sexual prejudice, this study explores the unique contributions of religious tradition, religiosity, and individual endorsement of denominational doctrine about same-sex sexuality in shaping these attitudes. Findings indicate that endorsement of denominational doctrine concerning same-sex sexuality is more influential than religiosity, and that endorsement of denominational doctrine is not simply a proxy for believing that same-sex sexuality is a sin. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Technological advancements and Internet sexuality: does private access to the Internet influence online sexual behavior?

The aim of this study was to investigate whether demographic characteristics and sexual behavior online and offline were associated with private, respectively, nonprivate access to the Internet in a Web sample of people who use the Internet for sexual purposes. A total of 1,913 respondents completed an online questionnaire about Internet sexuality, and 1,614 reported using the Internet for sexual purposes. The majority of these respondents reported having access to an Internet-connected computer no one else had access to (62 percent women and 70 percent men). The results showed that it is possible to differentiate between those who have access to an Internet-connected computer no one else has access to and those who have shared access to an Internet-connected computer. Not only did they differ in demographic characteristics, but also in the sexual activities they engaged in on the Internet. Different patterns were found for women and men. For example, men who had private access to Internet-connected computers were more likely than those who had shared access to seek information about sexual issues. Thus, having access to Internet computers no one else has access to may promote sexual knowledge and health for men. The results of this study along with the technological development implies that in future research, attention should be paid to where and how people access the Internet in relation to online behavior in general and online sexual behavior in particular.     

Family Experiences and Self-Criticism in College Students: Testing a Model of Family Stress,Past Unfairness,and Self-Esteem

Marriage and Family Therapists and other mental health professionals are often unaware of the sexual activity of preadolescent girls. The reason for this is the lack of research reporting on the sexual behavior of these young people. Also, in many cases the family may attend therapy for an unrelated issue and the sexual activity goes unnoticed. The present paper is an exploration into the lives of pre-teenagers' (ages 8–13) sex lives as they reported them in Internet chat rooms. Research on the content of chat rooms on the Internet is practically non-existent regarding this age group. Based on reports from over 1,300 pre-teen girls over a five-year time period, the results indicate that for some young girls, their young lives are filled with sexual behavior of one sort or another. They appear to be well versed in sexual terms and behaviors. In some cases the girls are forced into sexuality by a relative; in other cases, they appear to engage freely in sex with their boyfriends; in yet other cases they are forced by an older male. The girls overwhelmingly report that their parents are unaware of their sexual chatting on the Internet, even though it occurred regularly throughout the day. These girls are at risk. They are at risk for pregnancy and for sexual transmitted diseases, including HIV, not to mention the concomitant psychological effects. The data also indicate that the girls do not think about the consequences of their sexual behavior. Birth control and condom use appear not to be issues of concern for these young girls. Given the increased accessibility and use of the Internet by young people and the ability to create private spaces, blogs, and soon which are often sexual in nature, it is important for marriage and family therapists to understand the level of sexualization of some of these young girls in order to better address their needs and the needs of their families.     

A comparative study on the flow experience in web-based and text-based interaction environments

The purpose of this study was to explore a substantial phenomenon related to flow experiences (immersion) in text-based interaction systems. Most previous research emphasizes the effects of challenge/skill, focused attention, telepresence, web characteristics, and systems' interface design on users' flow experiences in online environments. However, text-based interaction systems without telepresence features and web characteristics still seem to create opportunities for flow experience. To explore this phenomenon, this study incorporates subject involvement and interpersonal interaction as critical antecedents into the model of flow experience, as well as considers the existence of telepresence. Results reveal that subject involvement, interpersonal interaction, and interactivity speed are critical to focused attention, which enhances users' immersion. With regard to the effect of telepresence, the perceived attractiveness of the interface is a significant facilitator determining users' immersion in web-based, rather than in text-based, interaction environments. Interactivity speed is unrelated to immersion in both web-based and text-based interaction environments. The influence of interpersonal involvement is diminished in web-based interaction environments. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed.     

Gender, Internet identification, and Internet anxiety: correlates of Internet use.

This paper reports a study that investigated the effects of gender, Internet anxiety, and Internet identification on use of the Internet. The study involved 608 undergraduate students (490 females and 118 males). We surveyed the students' experience with the Internet, as well as their levels of Internet anxiety and Internet identification. We found a number of gender differences in participants' use of the Internet. Males were proportionally more likely to have their own web page than were females. They used the Internet more than females; in particular, they were more likely to use game websites, to use other specialist websites, and to download material from the Internet. However, females did not use the Internet for communication more than males. There was a significant positive relationship between Internet identification and total use of the Internet, and a significant negative relationship between Internet anxiety and total use of the Internet. Controlling for Internet identification and Internet anxiety, we found a significant and negative correlation between gender and use of the Internet. In total, all three of our predictors accounted for 40% of the variance in general Internet use: with Internet identification accounting for 26%, Internet anxiety accounting for 11%, and gender accounting for 3%.     

Male Athletes and the Cult(ure) of Thinness in Sport

This article troubles the “down low” (DL) discourse by focusing on an Internet forum—Craigslist.org—where people on the “down low” post. The advertisements, gathered from seven cities in two U.S. regions, reinforce some of the “down low” discussion in the previous literature, as they show a pattern of seeking “masculine” men. These ads also depart from general perceptions such as the DL being a term used predominantly by black men. The authors discuss methodological implications in research with posts, and suggest advancing analyses on the relationship between race, sexuality and power, and gender and sexuality in DL research.     

Patterns of choices on video game genres and Internet addiction

In this study, we attempt to identify motives pivotal in choices made regarding online and offline game genres and assess whether they are meaningful predictors of Internet addiction. A separate goal was to determine how an assessment of Internet-related cognitions compares to criteria-based research instruments on Internet addiction, and demonstrate its clinical usefulness. We are using data from a cross-sectional study of the entire adolescent student population aged 12-18 of the island of Kos. Results indicate that specific game genres and motives for choosing a game are important predictors of Internet addiction, even after accounting for sociodemographic and Internet-use-related variables. Gender differences are not statistically important when we account for genre choices and motives for choosing them. Boys' thought content tends to revolve more around their Internet use compared to girls. Several patterns of motives to play specific genres were identified with the help of a canonical correlation analysis, demonstrating the fact that the simple observation of overt behavior is not enough to deduce the meaning of these actions for the individual. Using multiple measures of online addiction, examining genre preferences and underlying motives for choosing a game can be helpful in reaching a better understanding of the individual game player.     

Characteristics of men who have sex with men on the internet but identify as heterosexual, compared with heterosexually identified men who have sex with women.

We compared men who have sex with other men on the Internet with the remainder of the sample of men who reported only sex with women on the Internet, in a sample of 1,846 Swedish men recruited from a major Swedish portal. We report on the self-identified heterosexual men in the sample who reported engaging in cybersex in the past year, and for whom there was complete data on sexual identity and the gender of cybersexual partners. Of the 244 cases with full data, 76% were heterosexual in both identity and behavior, 16% were gay or bisexual in identity and reported both male and female cybersexual contacts on the Internet, and 8% indicated their sexual preference was heterosexual but also reported at least one male sexual partner on the Internet. Thus, 11% of self-identified heterosexual men had sex with other men online. Comparing the two groups, the men who had sex with men (MSM) who did not identify (MSM-NI) spent significantly more time per week online, although a similar amount of time on sexual pursuits, as the heterosexual men. The MSM-NI were significantly more likely to agree that their online sexuality had affected their sexuality in a positive way, to have bought sex from prostitutes, to agree that they do things online that they would not do offline, have cybersex more often, use a web-camera and microphone more often, flirt and visit contact sites more often, and agree more often that sexual thoughts and behaviors are causing problems, desire to have sex creates problems, and sometimes fail to meet commitments due to their sexual behavior. These data taken together suggest that MSM-NI online are not uncommon and are characterized by the extent of their cybersexual involvement that sometimes extends to other men. Such men may rationalize this cybersex with other men as not, or minimally, sexual in much the same way as Humphreys characterized MSMs in public restrooms.     

New religions and the internet: Recruiting in a new public space

The mass suicide of 39 members of Heaven's Gate in March of 1997 led to public fears about the presence of ‘spiritual predators’ on the world wide web. This paper describes and examines the nature of these fears, as reported in the media. It then sets these fears against what we know about the use of the Internet by new religions, about who joins new religious movements and why, and the social profile of Internet users. It is argued that the emergence of the Internet has yet to significantly change the nature of religious recruitment in contemporary society. The Internet as a medium of communication, however, may be having other largely unanticipated effects on the form and functioning of religion, both old and new, in the future. Some of the potential perils of the Internet are discussed with reference to the impact of this new medium on questions of religious freedom, community, social pluralism, and social control.     

Working in the Uncharted Technology Frontier: Characteristics of Women Web Entrepreneurs

The numbers of women choosing to become entrepreneurs has been steadily increasing for the past two decades. Recently, the Internet has provided a new venue for business that may be especially appealing for women. This study was conducted to explore gender- and business-related characteristics of women who own Internet businesses. Two hundred and eight women web entrepreneurs responded to an on-line survey. The results indicated that the types of businesses participants owned could be differentiated based on characteristics of the women web entrepreneurs. Specifically, women owning retail businesses reported less familiarity with computers and geared their Internet businesses more to women. In addition, participants defined the success of their Internet businesses in multiple ways that reflected their current life roles.This research was partially funded by an Initiatives for Women Grant from the University at Albany. A previous version of this article was presented at the Association for Women in Psychology conference in 2003.     

German matchmaking web sites: Online trafficking in women?

This article reports on a study of Germany-based matchmaking agencies operating on the Internet, investigating how they are organized and how they advertise their commodities. Matchmaking has rapidly grown into a big digital business. This has engendered debate regarding the sexual behavior of its users, consequences of the resulting intermarriages, and on successful international policy for regulating the related migration. Being a new phenomenon, matchmaking on the Internet has largely remained unresearched until very recently. This analysis is a preliminary attempt to address online introduction services in one industrialized western country, Germany. It examines the size and extent of this kind of German business. One goal is to explore regional manifestations of the trade such as which countries are the counterparts in the other end of the trade? The article also highlights features typical for the advertising on this kind of web site, keeping in mind gender, ethnic, and race aspects. Finally, the issues are raised of whether matchmaking agencies are providing equal possibilities to different kinds of people in this kind of transaction, and whether these kinds of services have an impact on gender and ethnic equality.     

General and Familiar Trust in Websites

When people rely on the web to gather and distribute information, they can build a sense of trust in the websites with which they interact. Understanding the correlates of trust in most websites (general website trust) and trust in websites that one frequently visits (familiar website trust) is crucial for constructing better models of risk perception and online behavior. We conducted an online survey of active Internet users and examined the associations between the two types of web trust and several independent factors: information technology competence, adverse online events, and general dispositions to be trusting or cautious of others. Using a series of nested ordered logistic regression models, we find positive associations between general trust, general caution, and the two types of web trust. The positive effect of information technology competence erases the effect of general caution for general website trust but not for familiar website trust, providing evidence that general trust and self-reported competence are stronger associates of general website trust than broad attitudes about prudence. Finally, the experience of an adverse online event has a strong, negative association with general website trust, but not with familiar website trust. We discuss several implications for online behavior and suggest website policies that can help users make informed decisions about interacting with potentially risky websites.