ABSTRACT

Social technology is ever-evolving, and increasingly offers novel domains for sexual experiences. In the current study, we investigated demographic correlates of engagement with emerging forms of sextech, defined here as internet-based applications, platforms, or devices used for sexual pleasure. Our web-based, demographically representative sample included 7,512 American adults aged 18–65 years, with a near-even gender split of men/women and moderate racial diversity (63% White). Participants indicated their engagement with eight forms of sextech, including six emerging forms of sexual technology (visiting erotic camming sites, participating in camming streams, teledildonic use, accessing virtual reality pornography, playing sexually explicit video games, and sexual messaging with chatbots or artificially intelligent entities) as well as two more common domains (online pornography and sexting). Participants who were younger, were men, had higher income, and were sexual minorities reported more frequent engagement with all forms of sextech assessed. Unlike prior work on pornography, religious individuals were more likely to engage with emerging sextech. Beyond online pornography (50%) and sexting (29%), visiting camming sites (18%) and playing sexually explicit video games (13%) were relatively common. Findings may contribute to the destigmatization of sextech engagement and forecast future norms in technologically-facilitated sexual behavior.

摘要

社会技术在不断发展，并越来越多地为性体验提供新的领域。在当前的研究中，我们调查了参与新兴形式的性科技的人口统计学相关性，此处定义为基于互联网的应用程序、平台或用于性快感的设备。我们基于网络的具有人口统计学代表性的样本包括 7,512 名年龄在 18-65 岁之间的美国成年人，男性/女性的性别比例接近平均，种族多样性适中（63% 是白人）。参与者表示他们参与了八种形式的性技术，包括六种新兴形式的性技术（访问色情摄像头网站、参与摄像头流、远程性爱使用、访问虚拟现实色情内容、玩色情视频游戏以及使用聊天机器人或人工智能发送性消息）实体）以及两个更常见的域（在线色情和性短信）。参与者年龄较小，男性，收入较高，性少数群体是否报告更频繁地参与评估的所有形式的性技术。与之前的色情作品不同，宗教人士更有可能参与新兴的性技术。除了在线色情内容 (50%) 和色情短信 (29%) 之外，访问视频网站 (18%) 和玩色情视频游戏 (13%) 也相对普遍。调查结果可能有助于消除性技术参与的污名化，并预测技术促进性行为的未来规范。