Internet pornography: A social psychological perspective on Internet sexuality

Spectacular growth in availability of sexually explicit material on the Internet challenges sexual science to study antecedents and consequences of experience with such content. The current analysis attempts to provide a conceptual and empirical context for emerging work in this area. Our discussion begins with a summary of some of what has been learned from existing research concerning sexually explicit materials in contexts other than the Internet, and considers lessons from this work that may inform emerging research concerning Internet sexuality. A social psychological theory, the Sexual Behavior Sequence (Byrne, 1977), is then applied in an initial effort to conceptualize a number of antecedents and consequences of experience with Internet sexuality. Discussion closes with consideration of an agenda for future research concerning antecedents and consequences of experience with Internet sexually explicit materials.