...technological such as control of Internet access and Internet skill level should explain substantial portion of the variance in people's OSA. We test this claim with an online survey of students at an English Canadian university for one type of sexual activity: viewing and sending sexually explicit material on the Internet (SEMI). We test seven hypotheses about the impact of technological and non-technological variables on SEMI using bivariate and multivariate techniques. We conclude that only the technological variable of time online per week impacts SEMI. Overall, our study suggests that the "Triple-A Engine" is not producing sexual change and thus is not powering a sexual revolution.

Key words: Anonymity Internet Online sexual activity Pornography Sexually explicit material

INTRODUCTION

Cooper and various other sex therapists have spearheaded research on Internet sexuality. A central claim (e.g., Cooper, 1998; Cooper, Boles, Maheu, & Greenfield, 2000; Cooper, Delmonico, & Burg, 2000; Putman, 2000; Cooper & McLoughlin, 2001; Cooper & Griffin-Shelley, 2002b; Cooper, Morahan-Martin, Mathy, & Maheu, 2002) is that access, affordability and anonymity, the "Triple-A Engine," "combine to turbocharge, that is accelerate and intensify online sexual activity" (hereafter abbreviated as OSA) (Cooper & Griffin-Shelley, 2002b, p. 5). The impact of the "Triple-A Engine" will be so profound, they suggest, that it heralds the next sexual revolution, though what the revolution entails is left open (Cooper 1998; Cooper, Boies, Maheu, & Greenfield, 2000; Cooper, McLouglin, & Campbell, 2000).

If the Internet is causing a sexual revolution, then variations in technological variables such as control of Internet access or computer skill level, should explain a substantial portion of the variance in people's OSA such as viewing or sending sexually explicit material on the Internet (hereafter abbreviated as SEMI). Using data gathered from an online survey of mostly students at an English Canadian university, we test seven hypotheses using bivariate and multivariate techniques.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Drawing from the writings of Cooper and his associates and some writings that fit with their analysis, we will present a composite analysis of how the "Triple-A Engine" works. People have easy access to numerous sites and formats (e.g., chat rooms, CUseeMe [video chat]) (Kibby & Costello, 2001) with a variety of sexual foci (e.g., anal sex, inter-racial sex, safe sex) from a variety of purveyors (e.g., educational, personal and commercial). Content costs are affordable as "competition on the www keeps all prices low and there are a host of ways of getting 'free sex'" (Cooper, Delmonico, & Burg, 2000, p. 6; Cooper, Boies, Maheu, & Greenfield, 2000, p. 519).

The key Internet feature is its perceived anonymity (Cooper, Boies, Maheu, & Greenfield, 2000; Putman, 2000; Carvalheira & Gomes, 2003). On the Internet, there is no risk of physical harm and people perceive little risk of emotional or social harm (McKenna, Green, & Smith, 2001). Anonymity combined with access and affordability leads to a sense of freedom and disinhibition which manifests itself in a faster pace of self disclosure and a willingness to talk frankly about sexual matters in general and sexual fantasies in particular (Cooper & Griffin-Shelley, 2002b; Doring, 2002). In consequence, on the Internet people are willing to experiment with their own sexuality by choosing different partners, different sexual activities and/or presenting themselves differently. Markers such as appearance, age and physical disabilities can be hidden (Cooper, 1998). People can learn the responses of others to a new sexual persona and decide how to cope with these responses. For instance, sometimes gay men come out first in cyberspace, then the "real world" (McKenna & Bargh, 1998; Ross & Kauth, 2002). Self-transformation is easier to accomplish when no longer enmeshed in one's basic social network. The Internet offers people the opportunity to establish new virtual relationships and identities which can become new social identities (McKenna, Green & Smith, 2001; McKenna & Bargh, 2000). The Internet has a vast potential for change ranging from enabling disenfranchised groups (e.g., those far from conventional beauty norms) to find partners to facilitating the compulsive viewing of sex (Adams, Oye & Parker, 2003; Cooper, 1998; Cooper & Griffin-Shelley, 2002a). Thus Cooper and his associates conclude that the "Triple-A Engine" is generating the next sexual revolution.

What the sexual revolution involves is left quite open. Cooper and associates identify numerous specific Internet facilitated changes. Examples include expanding the pool of potential sexual partners, decreasing the importance of physical attractiveness, connecting disenfranchised members of various communities, and tempting some people who would otherwise be at low risk of sexually compulsive behaviour into such behaviour (Cooper 1998; Cooper & Griffin-Shelley, 2002b). However, their central focus is on freedom, disinhibition, and the value of anonymity. Cooper, Boies, Maheu and Greenfield (2000) assert that with people's new freedom online there "is an unprecedented need for skills and values related to self-mastery" (p. 541). The specific illustrations of what sorts of changes the "Triple-A Engine" is producing and the basic forces seen as underlying the revolution suggest, at a minimum, that it involves more OSA. This prediction fits with the repeated concern in Cooper and his associates' own research with the amount of time people spend engaging in OSA (e.g., Cooper, Scherer, Boies, & Gordon 1999; Cooper, Morahan-Martin, Mathy, & Maheu, 2002; Cooper, Mansson, Daneback, Tikkanen, & Ross, 2003). In addition, as more people become connected and connected to partners suitable for them, offline sexual activity probably increases.

The underlying logic at work here also suggests a component of the sexual revolution will be "holiday romance sexuality" or "March Break sexuality": people will get together with people whom they do not expect to meet again, reveal some aspects of themselves quickly, not be overly concerned about their reputation in regular daily life, be sexually active and move on. The emphasis on people identifying otherwise unexpressed aspects of their own sexuality, suggests a fragmented postmodern sexuality in which individuals, not the wider society, regulate their own sexual expression.

Cooper and his associates offer a variety of evidence for the Internet's revolutionary potential. First, they note social trends such as people using the Internet as an alterative to bars and singles clubs to meet other people (Cooper & Griffin-Shelley, 2002a). Second, they refer to the general literature on the Internet's disinhibiting effect compared to face-to-face interaction (See Joinson, 1998 and McKenna & Bargh, 2000 for a review of this literature which bases itself on experimental, survey, case study and postings to websites evidence from people communicating in general and sexually). Third, they divide people who engage in OSA into three groups: recreational users, compulsives for whom the Internet is one mode of expressing their sexual problems and at-risk users whose personality interacts with the Internet as a result of the Triple A factors to generate problematic sexual behaviour which otherwise would not exist (Cooper, Delmonico, & Burg, 2000; Cooper, Scherer, Boies, & Gordon, 1999). Case histories such as a shy somewhat depressed man who comes across a pornographic site by accident and soon is masturbating compulsively while viewing these sites are used to illustrate at-risk users (Cooper, Putman, Planchon, & Boles, 1999). Cooper and...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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