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I was interviewed by Anthony Martinez Beven for the Oakland Press Newspaper in Michigan. Here is his article.

Naughty, Naughty: Internet Infidelity is on the Rise

Social networking Web sites, such as Craigslist, aren’t only scouting spots for killers, but they are also attracting married individuals — mostly men but increasingly more women — looking for sex. And most of the time sex is unprotected.

When entering the word “married” into the search engines of what are called “sex seeker” sites, dozens of sex ads authored by Oakland County residents are retrieved.

The headline from an ad posted on gay seeker site by a Troy man seeking action with another man reads: “Masculine married man looking to work up a sweat! Join me??” The rest of his profile text was not suitable for print.

In a 2000 study, the CDC found seeking sex partners via the Internet was relatively a common practice for men. And while more frequent for gay men, the study concluded men who seek sex using the Internet appear to be at greater risk for STDs than those who don’t. The study relied on the responses of 856 men, most of whom identified themselves as heterosexual.

According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, chlamydia among Oakland County women has increased every year between 2006 and 2008. Katie Macomber, a STD epidemiologist for the state health department, said this is due to more testing.

“Gonorrhea is more interesting to look at,” Macomber said, noting a sizable increase among Oakland County women 15 to 24, during the same time period, and a smaller increase among women 30 to 34.

There is no evidence linking an increase in chlamydia and gonorrhea among Oakland County women to men who have used the Internet to find other men for sexual escapades. But women who are married or in committed relationships with men and contract a STD are most likely to have gotten it from their partner having sex with another man.

“Men just want sex. Straight men are more willing to hook up with another male just to have a release and to end the whole search or the hunt,” said Joe Kort, a Royal Oak-based sex therapist. He stressed that condoms are rarely used.

“These men are not using protection. They’re separating it out as it didn’t happen. It’s total denial. They’ve hooked up and done it unprotected, and then they go have unprotected sex with their wives who have no idea,” Kort said.

Regardless of gender or sexual orientation, the Internet has opened the floodgates for cheating. In 2008, Craigslist Personals postings nationwide saw a 20 percent increase from 2007, the Los Angeles Times reported in December.

“It’s all about the three As: Accessibility, Affordability and Anonymity. The Internet just makes it so easy to cheat,” Kort said.

In a recent Craigslist ad, a married Farmington Hills was looking for a married woman who “daydreams about having an affair… Looking for something super discreet, random. No commitments, no drama, no strings attached. We still have our spouses and that would always take precedence.”

Online sex ads are usually graphic when describing the types of encounters being sought, and many have explicit photos posted. Most seeker sites offer free or minimal registration fees.

Kort, who treats both heterosexual and homosexual patients, said people who use these sites to cheat are the second largest group of new patients he treats.

“I’m still seeing more men than women, but research shows a 40 percent increase in women who use the Internet to cheat,” he said.

The Internet, Kort said, has helped women “open up their sexuality.” He said that while more married women are seeking same sex encounters, there are still more married men sleeping with other men.

While there were no hard numbers available, people looking to trace their spouse’s computer footprint seems to be on the increase, as well.

Lake Orion private investigator Linda Milam, who does not specialize in this type of surveillance, said, “I do refer my clients to computer and cell phone forensic specialists some of the time, and it does seem to be on the rise.”

Michael Ahern, vice president of business development for the Center for Computer Forensics in Southfield, said the company’s data recovery group works on 10 to 12 cases each year in which people want their spouses’ Internet activity traced. Recently, he said the company has had about a 30 to 40 percent increase in requests from married people on the verge of divorce.

“Some use it for evidence purposes, but most use it to make a decision on whether or not they are going to divorce their spouse,” Ahern said.

Depending on whether or not the Internet history on a computer has been deleted and if a check on e-mail communications is requested, costs to trace Internet activity range from $300 to $1,500, Ahern said.

Approximately 70 percent of time online is spent in chatrooms or sending e-mail; of these interactions, the majority are romantic in nature, according to the book "Affairs of the Net: The Cybershrinks' Guide to Online Relationships.”

Kort said one solution to the problem of cheating is sexual openness.

“A good conservation to have is, ‘How are we doing sexually?’ People are afraid to talk openly about what’s hot and what’s not hot for each other,” he said.

Out of all groups, lesbians are the least likely to cheat, Kort added. “They seem to value relationships more.”