You’ve tried night clubs, parties, blind dates, religious socials, even answered a couple of personal ads, without any luck. Another Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and you’re flirting with the idea of turbo-charging your search for love. Well, Intelligent Agents can help you find what you’ re looking for. They can help you search for your ideal partner, notify you when someone is found, obtain interesting information, romantic stories, articles, advice, and sexual content. You can also use Intelligent Agents to prevent sexually based media from entering your home, office, school, etc.
As more people start using the Internet, bringing it into other facets of their lives, they will naturally use it for romantic and sexual purposes. This is probably why the word “sex” has become the most searched word on all the major Internet search engines. >Most search engines attempt to filter out explicit sexual content, to one degree or another, but they are usually not very successful. Now, anyone, anywhere, can search for their ideal partner, and tap into the latest content related to even the most obscure areas of sexuality, free from embarrassment. Just try putting sexual phrases in your favorite search engine dialog box, and see what happens.
Online Dating Agents
There are Intelligent Agents or “Love Machines” that deliver contact information to you when it finds people who meet your personal criteria. They scan all incoming ads, on a daily basis, and they e-mail you with the results (similar to how meta agents scan the Internet for images and movie-files). It’s easy, it’s fast, and it’s free. Decide on the details that make up your own unique set of preferences and the will take it from there. You can focus your search by entering your unique preferences such as country, geographic region, height, build, heritage, age, category and lifestyle, and then the Agent goes to work.
The Dating Site Guide provides you with a list of international dating agents and sites that can help you find what you are looking for. With services like Yahoo Personals and Bio-Match, you click on the type of relationship you’re looking for, and browse the listings. You can use Advanced Search to narrow your search based on age, religion, or other preferences. Post an ad and help people find you. Create an email alert and it will notify you when a potential match posts an ad. Plus, the Agent 4 Dating site is now WAP enabled. If you have a WAP enabled phone, you will be able to see messages sent to you, anywhere, anytime. you are looking to add a little spice in your sex life, check out the Adult Friend Finder. They claim to be largest adult personals and swingers directory, and it’s free, easy, and anonymous!
There are also file-sharing agents for adult pictures. These sites give anyone the opportunity to show their pictures on a network, without the hassle of setting up a website. Anyone can now show their own ‘amateur’ collection of pics to the world. Some features include real-time picture-sharing capabilities with all users connected to the user’s personal network, categories that keep pictures organized, password protection, and the “911” feature which lets you close the software and clean the cache memory at the touch of the button. There are also file sharing application specialized in adult content. It supports image and video files sharing. Some features include extremely low bandwidth usage, an upload bandwidth limiter, an image viewer, file resuming, and chat.
Getting Advice and Education
Some people say that we must understand sex and romance in order to understand life. The Internet has provided one of the most important forms of education for millions of people, and it could be the greatest advance in human sexuality achieved to this point. It has become a mainstream source for information, interaction with others, advice from experts, and you can even consult with an on-line sex Chatterbot, which can answer sensitive questions about AIDS and Sex Education.
Whether you are:
- a curious teenager
- a young adult needing more insightful information
- a couple looking for ways to enhance a relationship
- an adult seeking to fill in knowledge gaps about sex
- a professional interested in background information and recent research
- or simply someone who wishes to learn more about romanticism and human sexuality.
Sites such as Go Ask Alice have become very popular websites because they allow anyone to ask even the most “embarrassing” questions, with complete anonymity, in the privacy of their own homes. Other sites such as Sexuality Bytes and Absolute Love provide comprehensive information about sexuality that was previously unavailable. Browse the archive of feature articles at About.com and you will come across some of the best information on everything from sexually transmitted diseases and contraception, to sexual enhancement and variety, all the way to features purely for fun. Take a look at the vibrant forums and chat rooms. Follow the links to the hundreds of hand-selected sites and learn about some interesting sexual statistics. You can even consult an artificial psychologist for helping you to find a soul mate or find out about things like the “G-Spot”. You will soon see what an incredible resource the Net has truly become when it comes to sexuality.
It has also become increasingly vital for professionals as a way to conduct research, to communicate with each other, and even to teach and do therapy. You can even get a Masters Degree in Human Sexuality from The Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. There are also conventions that promote more sex on the Internet. At the show in Las Vegas people are looking to strike deals and to buy the latest technology, or to link their domain names and Web sites. This is definitely an industry affair.
Meeting Someone Online
We all probably know someone who’s been romantically involved with someone that they met online. Whether through online personals ads, chat rooms, or simply meeting and getting to know someone in cyberspace. The Internet is replacing work as a prime location for adults to find a partner, and observations of chat rooms and other Internet sites reveal that the Internet facilitates communication, as well as in-person meetings. Online chat rooms have become the singles pubs of the nineties: a place where you can go to meet new people, build friendships, talk about sex, and to find romance. The attraction of chat rooms is that they offer “a combination of real time interaction with people, anonymity, and the ability to assume a role as close to, or as far from one’s “real self”.
Chat rooms can also be a place that increases the number of friends and social contacts that you have. Computer mediated communication has created an environment that frees us from the social constraints of our gender, class, or social status. Due to the anonymity of online chat rooms, people feel safe to act out their sexual desires, dreams, and fantasies. Plus, a lot of these people are isolated, either geographically or socially, and these people tend not to have the opportunity to have meet ideal partners, so they go online.
Sex on the Net
Sexual and romantic behavior is not only of basic biological importance, but also of core social importance, and a vital aspect of the psychological well-being of individuals. But, some people think that there is too much sex on the net. According to the WebMyth of the Week – “Web Myths & Hoaxes: The Web is Overrun with X-Rated Sites”, researchers at the NEC Research Institute found that actually only about 1.5% of sites on the web actually contained explicit sexual content. That’s just a mere fraction of all the content on the Web, although 1.5% of a billion sites is still an estimated 15 million pages.
The novel convenience of such a smorgasbord of sexually explicit materials is a new fact of modern life, said Kimberly Young, a psychologist in Bradford, Pennsylvania. “In a minute you can download sexual information, images, or go to a sex chat room,” she said “In real life, that kind of access is much more difficult.” Industry experts say that there are at least five factors that are causing the growth of the sex industry on the Internet:
- consumers enjoy considerable privacy on the Internet and can easily avoid the potential embarrassment of walking into an “adult” store, or talking about sensitive sexual issues.
- consumers have the ability to view and download sexual information very easily. Previously, they had to purchase an entire book, magazine, or video in order to gain access this material. Plus, it is easier to hide this information and material from family members, friends, and associates.
- the prevalence and fear of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases has helped to successfully market “modem sex” and auto-eroticism as “safe” and viable alternatives to the dangers of “real” sex.
- new and highly advanced computer technologies are quickly being absorbed into the mainstream, permitting an ever-expanding audience to gain access to digitized sexual material available on the “Information Superhighway.”
Statistics
USA Today – “Sex on the Internet isn’t just the domain of dirty old men and teen-agers in hormonal overdrive”. A new survey suggests that most Web surfers are simply looking for a little anonymous arousal. More than 9,000 Internet users responded to a 47-question survey on the MSNBC Web site. The questionnaire was directed at users who had gone to the Web for sexual pursuits. The average Internet user looks at erotic material for entertainment – and often out of curiosity, ”The survey found that only 8% of those who responded spent more than 10 hours a week engaged in online sexual pursuits. About 3% to 6% of the general population engages in sexually compulsive behavior.
Five of six Internet users who visited sexual sites were male, the survey said. Additionally, men tended to seek out pornographic pictures, while women sought out ”chat rooms” for romantic and sexually related talk. The survey found that 49% of women participated in chat rooms, while only 23% of men did. ”It mirrors what we see in society. Women are more interactive and men are more interested in visual stimuli”. x”The researchers cited statistics gathered by Relevant Knowledge, a Web-tracking service that found about 9.6 million people — or about 15% of all Internet users have logged on to sex-related Web sites at least once per month.
The Sex Market
The market for Cybersex is evolving rapidly. There is an estimated $7-8 billion earned from the sex industry. Experts believe that a significant portion of sexual material’s profit is due to its enormous margin – as high as 2,000%. In addition, most customers of adult sites are repeat customers who spend a large percentage of their disposable income. Every time consumers log on, their transactions assist WebMasters in compiling databases of information about their buying habits and sexual tastes. The sophisticated WebMasters are using these databases to develop mathematical models to determine which content they should try to market aggressively. During the past few years, websites are using computer networks and the unprecedented distribution channels they offer to penetrate markets throughout the world where public access has been historically restricted, including China, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Turkey.
It is clear that sexual material is being vigorously marketed in increasingly sophisticated ways and has now found a receptive audience in a wide variety of computer environments. Proceed cautiously — that’s the advice from therapists who are helping a growing number of patients suffering from Internet-related sex addiction problems. Cybersex is the same as phone sex, in a sense. It can involve frank discussion of sexual acts in real time as they are occurring,” explained Robert Weiss, clinical director of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles. His center treats about 125 patients a week, half of whom “have an Internet component to their sexual behavior,” he said. It’s easy to get “caught up in the moment”. When this happens you are less likely to think about your actions, and you might make a decision that you would otherwise not make, to cross a boundary that you wouldn’t otherwise cross. If you feel that you might have a problem, take a look at the Cybersex addiction checklist.
FILTERING AGENTS
An entire industry of Intelligent Agents has sprung up supplying “filtering” software to block sexually explicit sites, and yet the content just continues to grow. The widespread availability of sexual material on computer networks may have a profound effect on those who wish to utilize the emerging Information Infrastructure for non-sexual purposes. For instance, primary and secondary schools are increasingly connecting their students to broader international computer networks, where sexual material permeates the digital landscape. The US Congress continuously tries to restrict sexual information on the Net, but they continue to have difficulty. This is where Intelligent Agents can really help.
Conclusion
The Internet explosion is creating exciting new opportunities for romantic and sexual communication, education, entertainment and commerce, but issues still abound: Parents, teachers and employers want the power to choose what Internet content is safe, productive, relevant, and bandwidth friendly. What is considered acceptable or productive Internet content varies with every geography, organization, culture and household. Free-speech proponents and others often insist that sexual and romantic material offers a safe, controllable outlet. Another popular sentiment is that regulation of sexual material is unfair and unconstitutional. Regardless of the opinions, there will always be opposition when anyone tries to create constraints that limit the public’s ability to freely communicate or conduct business. One thing is for sure, Intelligent Agents can help increase or reduce exposure to sexual content, while we watch this issue develop over time.
Author: David Jurus