Looking For Love Online and Finding Unwanted Surprises Instead?
HIV infection rates are rising as social networks bring strangers together. Public health officials believe people are connecting and meeting in numbers never seen before, thanks to the internet. The numbers of people who randomly hook up with strangers online and find themselves infected with HIV is, sadly, rapidly rising.
Social networking sites connect strangers with the touch of a few computer buttons and a mouse. Meeting easily and casually on the internet often leads to anonymous and unprotected sex. Sex addicts turn to the internet for easy to find partners. The age 13 to 29 year age group has the highest increase in HIV infection rates; the same demographic that depends on the internet for social networking.
In the 1980s, bath houses spread the first HIV cases. They were meeting places for gay men and anonymous, unprotected sex. Experts say that today's online chat rooms and dating sites are becoming virtual bathhouses. More than one quarter of HIV infected people do not know they are infected.
There is increasing evidence that sex addicts are drawn to dating sites online. It is the easiest place to meet a big pool of partners. The California San Francisco Aids Research Institute studies show that people who use the internet to meet sexual partners engage in more risky behavior. They are more likely to have multiple partners, have unprotected sex, and get a sexually transmitted disease. HIV positive people who are in denial about their disease, or who risk rejection if they disclose their status, are more likely to seek anonymous sex from online social and dating sites.
Blacks and Latinos account for high numbers of new infections, 45 and 17 percent, respectively. Researchers think this suggests that cultural stigmas associated with homosexuality prevent them from seeking help or disclosing their status to partners.
Public health professionals believe social networks can be a new tool to fight the high numbers of HIV infection. Forums and email notifications for anonymous reporting might help the public get ahead of the infection. Using the internet to notify partners has become standard practice for public health officials. Manhunt, a gay men's site with four million active profiles, was the first site to offer partner notification in 2002. Health officials are pressuring Facebook and MySpace to add partner notification services on their sites because so many of the infections are in young people.
The message is loud and clear. It is not who you meet online or where you meet them in person. It is what you do when you meet them. With the large numbers of people on social networking sites, larger numbers of infected people are also online. Make it a rule not to hook up with random strangers. Always use protection if you do. The message is still the same. Get tested so that you know your status. Protect yourself and your partners. Make it a priority to date safe and date smart in the big world of social networking and online dating. -- Kerry Gray
Social networking sites connect strangers with the touch of a few computer buttons and a mouse. Meeting easily and casually on the internet often leads to anonymous and unprotected sex. Sex addicts turn to the internet for easy to find partners. The age 13 to 29 year age group has the highest increase in HIV infection rates; the same demographic that depends on the internet for social networking.
In the 1980s, bath houses spread the first HIV cases. They were meeting places for gay men and anonymous, unprotected sex. Experts say that today's online chat rooms and dating sites are becoming virtual bathhouses. More than one quarter of HIV infected people do not know they are infected.
There is increasing evidence that sex addicts are drawn to dating sites online. It is the easiest place to meet a big pool of partners. The California San Francisco Aids Research Institute studies show that people who use the internet to meet sexual partners engage in more risky behavior. They are more likely to have multiple partners, have unprotected sex, and get a sexually transmitted disease. HIV positive people who are in denial about their disease, or who risk rejection if they disclose their status, are more likely to seek anonymous sex from online social and dating sites.
Blacks and Latinos account for high numbers of new infections, 45 and 17 percent, respectively. Researchers think this suggests that cultural stigmas associated with homosexuality prevent them from seeking help or disclosing their status to partners.
Public health professionals believe social networks can be a new tool to fight the high numbers of HIV infection. Forums and email notifications for anonymous reporting might help the public get ahead of the infection. Using the internet to notify partners has become standard practice for public health officials. Manhunt, a gay men's site with four million active profiles, was the first site to offer partner notification in 2002. Health officials are pressuring Facebook and MySpace to add partner notification services on their sites because so many of the infections are in young people.
The message is loud and clear. It is not who you meet online or where you meet them in person. It is what you do when you meet them. With the large numbers of people on social networking sites, larger numbers of infected people are also online. Make it a rule not to hook up with random strangers. Always use protection if you do. The message is still the same. Get tested so that you know your status. Protect yourself and your partners. Make it a priority to date safe and date smart in the big world of social networking and online dating. -- Kerry Gray
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