From: Cu Digest (tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu) Subject: Cu Digest, #9.64, Wed Aug 27 97 Computer underground Digest Wed Aug 27, 1997 Volume 9 : Issue 64 ISSN 1004-042X ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 00:53:13 -0400 (EDT) From: "noah@enabled.com" Subject: File 2--Sex is driving Internet progress, experts say (fwd) 07:01 PM ET 08/18/97 Sex is driving Internet progress, experts say CHICAGO (Reuter) - Sex is the most searched-for topic on the Internet and the quest for it is driving the net's technological advances, researchers said Monday. ``This is going to be the next sexual revolution. It's going to affect sex in a profound way,'' said Al Cooper, clinical director of the San Jose Calif. Marital and Sexual Center. Questions being asked range from whether voyeurism in cyberspace constitutes infidelity to whether meeting someone electronically before visually might lead to better long-term relationships, he said. Ray Noonan, a sexual researcher from New York University, said, ``The Internet is probably one of the most profound changes in world society history, with greater impact than the Gutenberg press and broadcast media... ``Sex drives the technology of the Internet and the World Wide Web,'' he added. The two researchers and others spoke during a panel discussion on the topic during the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. Cooper said sex was the most searched-for topic on the Internet, even though the number of sites or user groups devoted to it represent a relatively small percentage of the masses of information available in cyberspace. Adult entertainment and sexually explicit material are the ''No. 1 income generator on the Internet,'' he said, adding that he believed they would drive telephone sex services out of business in a few years. The phenomenon will impact human sexuality by offering information, education, the chance of a ``first step'' for the otherwise timid and the possibility of linking those with similar sexual orientations and tastes. ``There is also a potential for better long-term relationships,'' Cooper said, if people get to know each other before physical attraction occurs.