Sex Addiction and the New Media Frontier

1. Sex Addiction and the New Media Frontier • Robert Weiss LCSW, CSAT-S • Founding Director - The Sexual Recovery Institute • Director of Sexual Disorder Programs • Elements Behavioral Health (Promises, The Ranch & SRI) Note: This presentation will demonstrate methods utilized to access online sexual experiences. Explicit images will not be shown, however please carefully consider if learning such information might prove harmful to your personal health or recovery.

3. How long did it take for the following technologies to reach 50 million participants following public introduction? • Radio - 38 years • Television - 13 years • Internet - 4 years • Social Networking - 16 months! • Whatever comes next will happen close to instantaneously. It will be in our lives before we know it our fully understand it. So get ready.

4. The NEW GENERATION GAP Old Gap New Gap In essence, we (older, wiser, professional folks) are inadvertently becoming invisible!

5. Now think about the ‘Triple A’ engine and our experience with sexual content & contact over the past 20 years • Access • Affordability • Anonymity • * Cooper, Del Monico et al 1998 - 1999

6. Sexual Access Timeline 1.0 Pre-history - 1890 • Recreational and Intimate Sexuality • Cave, drawn and painted pornography • Affairs & Infidelity • Public Baths and Steam Rooms • Prostitutes & Harems • Masturbation

7. Sexual Access Timeline2.0 1890 - 1970’s • All of the above plus ... • Photographic Porn • Porn Movies • Porn theaters, Porn shops • Bath-houses & Strip clubs

8. Sexual Content Access 3.0 1977 - 1990 • All of the above plus ... • Video = VCR and BETA • Phone Sex • Softcore on cable TV- at home • “Adult” and “Escort” Sections in Yellow Pages, magazines and newspapers

9. Sexual Content Access 4.0 1990 - 2004 • All of the above plus ... • BBS - Online bulletin board systems (BBS) • Websites for porn and prostitution • Online Porn and file transfer sites • Chat Rooms • Online Hook-ups - i.e. craigslist • Webcams and interactive live sex

10. Sexual Content Access 5.0 2004 - Present • All of the above plus ... • Sexting and live video streaming from your smart phone • Smart Phones with GPS hook-up apps • Social Networks (facebook, twitter, mySpace) • Virtual World Sex (2nd-Life, virtual games etc) • 3-D Imagery and Teledildonics

11. About Sexting Eewwwwwwwww! And some are using it to offend ...

12. 3-D Adult Video in the News2011 • The first 3D porn full feature film made for modern stereoscopic TVs-those that use shutter eyeglasses-has arrived… It’s called Kama-sutra. • Sharp’s 3D mobile video will support user movie creation which, in turn, will promote the viewing of 3D content — both amateur low-cost video and corporate premium content.

13. About Social Networks The Economist is reporting that pornography-related web activity is decreasing in America (as a proportion of total visits), as more and more people are opting to participate in social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook. * What does this say about our work and the work to come, especially in regard to women who make up 45% of all social network involvement? *The Economist 2010 and Hitwise.com

14. facehooked? • “Before entering treatment I was spending up to 5 hours a night some nights cruising facebook for sex. Well, not for sex exactly, it was more cruising for faces and profiles I thought might respond to me. I was looking for friendly, engaging women, then leaving messages, poking them, trying to get a response from someone who cared. Then we would take it from there ... ” • - A 32 year old married SRI-IOP client

15. About Smartphones • GPS locators mean immediate live access to sexual partners and sexual content- • Universal Internet access anywhere - to porn, to sexually oriented environments (strip clubs, adult bookstores, etc) • Live video streaming to phones and pads- • Let’s look at this more closely ...

16. There’s an app for that!So what’s an app? • Apps are applications that you load from the Internet onto your smart phone or ‘pad’ to perform specific functions. For example - if you load a dictionary app onto your phone- you can then use your phone to look up words and spelling from your phone • Sex apps are the same - loaded from to your phone to help find sexual partners.

18. What makes phone based Apps different from Websites? • They are useful for anyone wary of leaving tracks on work or home computers. Because the apps are loaded up from phones' browsers so without a tracking device, they leave no electronic, traceable trail. • Social connection apps utilize the active Global Positioning Satellite feature (GPS) on your phone so you can find a sex partner literally within feet or blocks of where you sit.

19. Apps you should know about • Ashley Madison - for married men and women • Grindr - for gay men • Qrusher Girls - for lesbian women • Loopd-Mix Chat! - to find all types of partners

20. AboutAshley Madison • Started as a website - now also a mobile app - perfect example of content access progression • AM Slogan: “Life is short, have an affair.” • AM Mission Statement: “To provide an interactive way for like-minded users to explore whether they wish to meet each other, chat with each other and/or explore extra-marital relationships” • Over 9-million members internationally • In May 2009 – 1.3 million men and women used the service to contact a sexual partner in that single month • 92% of males on the site sign in as married • 68% of female members sign in as married

21. About Grindr • it’s an iPhone application that allows you to find men near you (and I mean like the next building over) instantly using your smartphone connection. You click on the app and it uses your GPS location to explain where you are feet/miles-wise from the next available guy.

22. Now let’s take a live look at ... • Ashley Madison • Grindr • And something to make you feel better after ...

23. 5.0 Smartphone Sexual Experience Access (and apparently forgiveness as well) are already in our lives today ... • GPS Locator Apps for finding sex partners • “FaceTime” - Available with the iPhone 4 - allows for live streaming sex acts via smart phone or tablet (iPad) • Virtual Sex - Teledildonics

24. Teledildonics with your Wii... By hooking up the hardware components up to the two Wii-motes, wiggles and thrusts on the first Wii-moteare detected and sent via Bluetooth to a nearby computer. From there this information is sent over the Internet and reproduced by the otherWii-mote which acts as a Wii-bratoron the other end, allowing remote partners to simultaneously enjoy each others stimulations.

25. And about this, I can only say ... • Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! And it’s only $279.00 with your Wii Console

26. The good news you should also know about • Treatment and recovery are also entering the new media frontier, albeit a bit more slowly. All of us need to be aware of these options for our clients. Some examples include: • Tele-meetings • Online 12-step Chats • Online Skype Meetings • Face to face video sponsorship • Apps like Mobi-Stealth- to keep track of your addict • Virtual Reality de-sensitization techniques ...

27. In summary, we need new tools toward more effective clinical work, advanced training that is inclusive of new technologies and we need empirical, data-driven research! • Escalation in Sexual Addiction and related intimacy disorders is being fueled by Exponential Technological Growth - which is only just beginning to move toward virtual sex. • Most research data is gathered from polls, small uncontrolled studies and the media - does not meet criteria • We need to know- who is at risk, what prevention is possible and what are the most effective strategies for treatment? • Finally - new technologies are informing new addiction treatment methods with some success - when can we start?

28. Sex Addiction and the New Media Frontier • Robert Weiss LCSW, CSAT-S • Founding Director - The Sexual Recovery Institute • Director of Sexual Disorder Programs • Elements Behavioral Health (Promises, The Ranch & SRI)