Thirty percent of women who use online dating services have had sex on a first date, according to a study by Sexuality Research & Social Policy, a journal of the National Sexuality Research Center. The research was conducted by Paige M. Padgett, Ph.D., and published in the June 2007 issue of the journal. The name of the study is Personal Safety and Sexual Safety for Women Using Online Personal Ads.
While the 30% of women having sex on the first date may surprise people, even more shocking is that out of that number, 77% of them didn't use any protection during the sexual encounters. Some online dating services make it easy for people to meet up for sexual encounters by offering "Intimate" or "Erotic" services to members.
"Risky behaviour like this, from both males and females, is contributing to the dramatic rise of sexually trasmitted diseases," says Joe Tracy, Publisher of Online Dating Magazine. Online Dating Magazine, a consumer watchdog publication for online daters, also contains an STD Info Center with educational information about sexually transmitted diseases. "When you have unprotected sex with people you are meeting online, you are playing russian roullette with your health. It's not a matter of 'if' you'll get a sexually transmitted disease, but rather 'when' and 'how many'."
Safety measures some women use before meeting a man, according to the study, are:
1) Googling him.
2) Running a background check.
3) Not giving any personal information (like address, phone number, etc.).
4) Revisit subjects already discussed to see if the man is lying.
5) Gut instinct.
The study shows a strong popularity of online daters using email to communicate with each other. Some women set sex boundaries via email, others made it clear there would be no sex on the first date, and others didn't discuss the subject at all.
The study showed that neary 3/4ths of those who had sexual encounters never discussed STDs or AIDS. And email apparently played a major role in how far intimacy went so quick. From the abstract:
"The high frequency and intensity of email communication prior to meeting in person cultivated acceleration of intimacy for the individuals involved and may have affected somen's decisions to engage in risky sexual behaviours."
The study used a survey placed on various online dating services and targetting women. The survey was completed by 740 women of which 568 said they had met someone in person. While 30% had sex on the first date, some were specifically looking for that.
