By Joe Barr
Originally published in 1995

Cybersex 1. virtual reality of the erotic kind 2. a willing suspension of disbelief that magically transforms pixels into pheromones.

Sex sells. Make no mistake about it, the online services are in fierce competition for the dollars it brings. It has always been a part of the online scene, but mostly hidden from view. 

Blame it on midnight. Midnight on the internet that is. Since being discovered by the media everything about the internet has been poked, prodded, and probed under the glare of headline lights. Internet activists, wired journalists, and front-page politicians have all done their part in making sure everyone knows there is pornography to be found in USENET newsgroups. 

But everyone already knew about the rooms on AOL, about the Adult CB Bands on CompuServe, and now even about the 'Anything Goes' policy at staid old Prodigy. Prodigy's mass-mailings over the past few months have included a voluptuous young woman whose only message seems to be that she's not online to discuss the weather. 

Cybersex includes a wide range of activities: downloading and/or trading dirty pictures, "hot chats" among and between singles, couples, or groups, "hot mail" or simply erotic stories. But the leading edge of cybersex these days is the live video- conferencing made possible with free software and inexpensive cameras. 

Most of these activities are similar to more traditional behavior. Downloading pornographic photos or videos is not much different than buying shrink-wrapped magazines or XXX movies. Hot chatting is the phone sex of cyberspace. 

HNG's (horny net geeks) and the women who love them are everywhere. These are the users that CompuServe and the other online giants are fighting over. Take a look in the adult CB bands the next time you're on CIS. You'll often find a thousand or more users on the two adult CB bands. 

Before I offend any of my dear friends who hang out there and don't participate in anything hotter than intelligent chat with their friends, let me point out that there are those who are honestly seeking polite conversation and platonic relationships. But they are definitely in the minority. 

Often a person's CB handle will inform you as to exactly where their interest lies. *Throbbing Member* and *Housewife in Teddy* are examples The channels people congregate on (CIS is now starting to refer to them as rooms, perhaps to make them seem more accessible to AOL users) serve as a guide as well. Many of the 36 available are labeled for special interests, others have simply evolved on their own. 

Channel 1 is a "meet-market", 10 is for S&M, 33 is for gays, and 34 for lesbians. Not every channel is an indication of sexual desire or orientation, but the most popular are those I just itemized and they make up the majority of users at any given time. 

Channel 1 is usually jammed. But trying to follow an online conversation while fifty or a hundred people are typing at once can be a little overwhelming. Jack and Jill often meet there, however, and then either move to a quieter channel or go into private chat so they see (and are seen by) only each other. 

Private messages can also be sent between users. This is risky, however, because in the heat of the moment typo's are not unusual. A typo in a private send often results in the message message being spilled out onto the open channel, where anyone can see it. This has led to so many red-faced and furious disconnects that it's become fodder for online comics who 'accidentally' drop such lines for laughs. 

My first experience with online sex came when I joined The Source in 1984. In those heady days almost every encounter was like magic, and had hypnotic effect of real time exchanges depicted in the film "Jack Flash." It was new and it was the springtime of a place which had yet to be called cyber-anything. 

Two flesh-and-blood lovers came to me first on the CGA monitor of my XT. Both from New York, both eventually coming to Dallas to visit. In retrospect, I'm surprised I didn't stop after the first face meeting. The poor girl was nothing like the fanta- sies of her that I had constructed from our screen time. She didn't look that much like the photo she had sent, either. I was greatly disappointed in the reality. 

A few months later I met the second. She was more attractive in person than I had thought she would be. The lesson, I suppose, is that you never really know what the other end of an online relationship is like until you can see, touch, feel and smell them. 

A good online friend I met on CompuServe seven or eight years ago was an assistant sysop in the Human Sexuality forum. She was very wise about online love and lust. In a nutshell, Diane told me to remember three key points about online relationships: 

(1) they develop very, very quickly - and often end just as suddenly 

(2) they are inside-out relationships - your first impressions are based on what the other the other says, thinks and feels rather than the color of their eyes, the size of their waist, or the kinds of clothes they wear 

(3) They are often based on how well the other person types rather than the character and stature of the individual - fast, nimble fingers often come across as greater wit and wisdom when your monitor is your only vantage point. 

Online sex has a better name than it might have had otherwise because it provided a 'safe' alternative against the backdrop of AIDS ending the reign of free love. It became 'hip' to a certain extent. Many were drawn to it for other reasons than being cool, though. Social misfits, physically impaired or unattractive, or others who shy away from the mainstream meat-markets at happy-hour for whatever reason were made equal to the most glamorous players around when they sat behind their keyboards. Like alcohol, being online gives many a sense of false courage which allows them to do things they wouldn't normally do. 

One thing that missing from these text-based tit illations was, of course, the visual aspect. All that's changed now since the introduction of CUSEEME. Developed two years ago by students at Cornell University, today it's the hottest thing on the inter- net. Watch for the commercial services to add it (or something like it) to their product line as, in fact it can be quite a surrealistic experience. 

The image appears a cell at a time, each cube-shaped, and seemingly at random locations within the window frame. If you have ever seen Salvador Dali's "Portrait of Lincoln" you'll have a good idea of what I mean. Once all the cells are filled in you can clearly see the image from the distant "cam." 

But CUSEEME is not about just sending a still picture, it's about live video, so you can see movements, watch the other person's facial expressions, and so on. The software is clever enough to only transmit those portions of the image which has changed, but even so movement can disturb the image radically unless you have a good connection. I would hate to use this product at speeds less than 28.8, and ISDN would be much nicer. Remember, though, your connect speed to the internet is only one factor in CUSEEME performance. Oh, voice is included too. But it's not ready for prime time. The internet is fine for voice alone, but when it is competing with video in-and-out it just isn't worth the bother. 

The cheapest and most popular hardware solution today is the QuickCam camera from Connectix. For roughly a hundred dollars you get a small camera that does everything you need without the added expense of a full-motion video card. Of course, if you already have a video camera and a card which lets you connect it to your computer, you're all set. The QuickCam connects through your printer port and it has an attachment that goes into your keyboard port as well. No card to install or IRQ to fiddle with. 

Diandra was the first girl I saw on CUSEEME. She's a good looking blonde. I remember more than anything else about that first (completely non sexual, by the way) CUSEEME experience how surprised I was to find that she was so attractive. That turned out to be the rule in CUSEEME rather than the exception. I guess it wouldn't have turned out to be so popular otherwise. 

In CUSEEME-speak, the word "show" has come to mean a display of nudity, masturbation, or other sexual activity which can range in length from a minute or two to an hour or longer. Another amazing thing I learned in my research is the number of attractive women who enjoy "showing" themselves. One beautiful young lady from Paris does regular "shows" and has a throng of faithful viewers on the IBM reflector's Adult conference. She is only one of the reasons that the Adult area on this reflector site has become one of the hottest sites around. All the seats are taken an hour or even two hours before her appearance and nobody leaves until her hour-long display is finished. 

While the IBM site is the hottest public reflector these days, it's nothing compared to the reflector underground. Private refs (their IP's, at least) are plentiful. Most cater either to couples or homosexuals. If you fit either of those categories and are looking for a little action in CUSEEME land, it won't take long to find it. Or if you are female, attractive, and not shy about showing yourself to others you'll find lots of folks asking you to visit their site. But if you are a single, straight HNG you'll find it more difficult to find. 

Getting the IP address of a CUSEEME reflector is only part of the trick, however. The operator has a choice of thousands of conference numbers he can use to operate on. Unless you know the conference number, it can take an awful long time to find the action even if you have the IP. Concern over the CDA has a lot of private ref operators even more cautious, and they change IP, conference, and/or password for entrance quite often. 

Commercialization may be the best way to protect children from stumbling across XXX activity on CUSEEME reflectors. Instead of the freewheeling (and free) access available to anyone today, at least to the public refs, someone will start charging admission and bill hourly rates like AOL CompuServe or Prodigy. In fact, it could be one of the big three that does it first. 

Why not? Like I said in the beginning, sex sells. Perhaps a plastic fence around the XXX sites would be the best way to keep children out anyway.