Virtual Kicks

Remote loving is the way ahead for humans in the new millennium. Call it virtual sex if you will, cybersex if you really want. Getting your teenage kicks can now happen at any time of day, with anyone in the world, in front of your computer, with a keyboard, a range of kinky contraptions including teledildonics (remote-controlled sex toys) and, of course, your imagination.

A SafeSex adaptor hooks onto a computer monitor, enabling devices to be controlled (faster, slower) across the Internet by remotely altering the brightness on the screen. If you don't have a faraway partner you can find someone to do the job on SafeSexPlus's sister site iFriends.

The title of the company, SafeSexPlus, is pertinent. The new age of digital sex marks the dawning of the ultimate in safe sex. No messy exchanging of body fluids, no skin-on-skin action, no spreading of disease, and no unwanted pregnancy. It's like some clinical sci-fi movie has just come to life. At last, no need to share a double bed.

Okay, we might be exaggerating to catch your attention. Or are we? Maybe sex across the wires isn't the way forward? Perhaps there won't come a day when we'll prefer remote partners to those we can touch. Most of us might even recoil from the idea of strapping body bits into titillating computer peripherals. But the advancements in technology are throwing open the doors of opportunity to ways of getting pleasure that the majority of us have probably never thought of before.

It's Nothing New

Sex, or rather the desire to make money through selling sex, has driven technological advances through the ages, but especially over the course of the last several decades. The videotape wasn't invented so that smut barons could start peddling their wares directly into people's homes and make a fortune, but when the VCR arrived it was warmly adopted by the adult entertainment industry, which immediately spied a fistful of dollars hiding in the tape heads.

Soon pornographic film-makers were making straight-to-video classics with the stupidest names possible. This kick-started the demand for VCRs that eventually drove down the unit price to a more consumer-friendly level. It has been suggested that Sony's anti-porn stance is what really killed off the Betamax format.

Adult entertainment and technology go hand-in-hand because the appetite for sex is virtually insatiable. Whatever your feelings about porn, there's no doubt that millions want it. And if there's a new way those millions can be sold it, the purveyors of porn will exploit it until the last orgasm is squeezed dry for good, hard cash.

The Internet is the biggest technological advance in a longtime. It's no surprise that the online porn industry is worth around $1 billion. It's a dotcom bubble that will never burst. But this article isn't about the widespread availability of online porn and how it's swelling the bank accounts of many around the world while pumping the passion glands of punters. Porn is just a part of the picture. The Net is also offering new ways for many sexually active people around the world to interact.

Virtual sex is an intriguing subject (will people really prefer virtual sex to real body contact sex?), an often humorous one (will we all be lounging around in sex suits one day connected to the Net?), and a difficult one to explore in the mainstream media (usually the mention of the word sex is enough to send a minority of readers into a tirade -apologies already.

The topic of sexuality and its link with technology is one that could be exhaustively studied for a University thesis. It's near boundless in scope and there are loads of opinions on the benefits, the supposed dangers, and the outrageous factor.