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By Annie Ruth C. Sabangan, Senior Reporter
(Part 2)
HOW many Filipino young adults are getting
hooked on cybersex chatting, just “Ted,” “Mark,” Joey” and
“Cindeejerkee”?
So far, no statistical study has been made that
would be alarming enough to merit attention and scrutiny of online
cybersex, pornography and prostitution in the Philippines.
A survey done by AC Nielsen Philippines last
year only described the country’s Internet population as “urban,
young and sophisticated.”
Internet usage, mostly chatting, e-mail and
surfing, is prevalent in the younger age group according to the
market research company.
Of the total estimated 1.5 million Filipinos
that had used the Internet, half of which are in Metro Manila, AC
Nielsen noted that 45 percent are aged 12-19 years old; 36 percent
are under the age bracket of 20-29; 30-39 years old comprise 12
percent while the age bracket of 40-60 represents 8 percent.
The survey showed that half of those with
Internet access belong to the A-C classes or the upper and middle
economic strata, though class D users, who mostly access Internet
from cafes and schools, are also increasing.
Local online cybersex:
Getting into the mainstream?
To get the bigger picture and also the specifics
on Filipino online cybersex activities and other Internet usage that
have to do with sex, prostitution and pornography, The Times last
month conducted an informal survey by visiting and participating in
chatrooms and e-mail sex groups frequented mostly by local Internet
users.
If the Yahoo!Messenger’s Philippine regional
chatrooms would be used as basis, it isn’t hard to conclude that
Filipino online cybersex activities are getting into the mainstream.
For the last three weeks of September, The Times
visited Filipino chatrooms within the Yahoo!Messenger and was able
to list a total of 48 chatrooms with sexually explicit room names
out of the average of 100 chatrooms that appear daily on Yahoo!’s
“user room” for the Philippines.
These 48 rooms, as their names suggest, are
engaged in sexually explicit activities—where chatters are either
into twaddling, heavy flirting, cybersex, voyeurism or nude shows.
Young women often strip and at times men masturbate on Internet web
cameras.
The 48 rooms could be categorized into six
types: rooms for heterosexuals, rooms for voyeurs, rooms for gays,
rooms where women act as sex kittens, rooms for lesbians, and rooms
where the subject is teen sex.
Heterosexual sites or those that are for the
opposite sex have the most number of sex rooms (21 rooms), followed
by rooms for voyeurs, 10; gay rooms, 8; rooms where women play up as
sex kittens, 4; rooms for lesbians, 3 and teen sex rooms, 2.
Though categorized into types, the chatrooms are
visited by mixed groups. For instance, male chatters also visit
lesbian rooms.
It is also worth noting that while several local
chatrooms have names that sound wholesome or even religious, sex
often remains the topic of conversation.
This only goes to show that chatrooms cannot be
characterized based on their names alone. Occasionally, chatrooms
are not composed of homogeneous groups. There are instances when
some chatrooms can be considered melting pots—composed of various
kinds of visitors with different motives.
At least 1,320 Pinoys daily are into cybersex at
Yahoo!
Not all of the sex chatrooms, however, appear
daily on Yahoo!Messenger. On the average, only 33 rooms regularly
appear on the site.
Each chat room at Yahoo!Messenger can
accommodate only up to 40 chatters. The Times’ survey showed that
day-in and day-out, most, if not all, of the 33 local chatrooms are
full—which goes to show that on the average, there are 1,320
individuals who chat daily in Yahoo!’s local cybersex rooms.
This figure could become bigger since visitors
exiting the room are continuously being replaced by other guests.
Due to the anonymous character of Internet
chatting where anybody could assume different identities, it would
be difficult to determine the age brackets of the chatters. Taking
into account AC Nielsen’s survey, it can be deduced that most
chatters belong to the younger age group who are within the upper-
and middle-class economic strata.
Again taking cue from AC Nielsen’s survey, it
is possible that cybersex activities have spread among individuals
who belong to Class D.
This is indicated by the brisk business of
affordable computer and Internet rental shops in Metro Manila. One
of the biggest shops in Quezon City, with 40 computers for rent and
charges P20 per hour of Internet use, is always full of customers.
Ten of the 40 units are inside cubicles that have web cameras. Even
during midnights and until dawn, the cubicles are always fully
occupied, males, are often seen engaging in sex chats.
Heterosexuals, males and gays
The gender of the chatters is hard to ascertain.
Many of them switch roles. Males introduce themselves as females,
females act out as males. Men assumed to be gays, most of the time,
pretend to be women.
Judging from the number of cybersex rooms
visited by most chatters, it appears that the preference for sex
chatmates are highest in rooms for heterosexuals or opposite sex.
Based on chat participations of The Times in
various cybersex rooms, it appeared that most chatters are males
hunting for female chatmates.
Within three weeks of engaging in chatting and
visiting Internet cafés in Quezon City, The Times found out that at
least seven out of 10 chatters, especially in the most indecent (or
shall we say hard core) rooms, are males.
Cherrie Joy F. Billedo, a psychology instructor
at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, recently did a
seminal study on the role of Internet relay chats (IRCs) in the
formation of interpersonal attraction and romantic relationships.
While cybersex activities were not the focus of
Billedo’s study, she found out nonetheless, just like The Times’
findings at Yahoo!Messenger, that male chatters dominate “X”
channels at IRCs.
Especially during midnights, male chatters visit
these rooms and look forward to seeing girls strip on the web cam.
When there are no nude shows, men often get bored and cajole their
female chatmates to reveal their bare essentials.
If you are a female chatter and want to
displease your male chatmates, flirt for as long as possible. When
the men are already falling for you, inviting you to a one-on-one,
private cybersex on web cam, tell them you worry about something.
When they ask what you “worry” about, drop the bomb: tell them
you fear that your pen’s could be bigger than theirs.
Sure enough, you will receive verbal invectives.
Most Filipino male chauvinists in sex chatrooms loathe gay chatmates.
Top Pinoy sex channels
host 400 sex chatters daily. The other popular chat program used by
Filipinos for chatting is MIRC. Like Yahoo Messenger, MIRC is an
Internet relay chat (IRC) engine allowing people all over the world
to engage in real-time conversations.
Like Yahoo!Messenger, MIRC is where one can find
an overdose of sex talk, sleaze and silly chatter.
Aside from the usual cybersex activities, many
chatters at MIRC, the moment they log on the channel, look out for
chatmates in their area, who are ready for “SEB” (sex eyeball,
which means personally for sex)—twosome, threesome or orgy.
Others look for someone who could volunteer his
or her place for SEB. When two or three people agree for a SEB, they
exit the big chatrooms used for meeting prospects and enter a
private chatroom where they feel free to talk about when and where
they will have SEB.
Others ask for SOPs (sex on phone) or look for
strangers who are willing to exchange nude photos. Some invite
fellow visitors to view porno websites and sex chatrooms. Some
visitors post their cell phone numbers so they can easily be
contacted for real, casual sex.
Unlike Yahoo!Messenger’s room limit of 40
individuals, MIRC’’s rooms (they’re usually called channels)
depend on the operator who created the channel.
The six most famous Pinoy chatrooms at MIRC are
#kantutan, #bi-manila, #manila sex, #pinoy sex, #seb and #libog. On
the average, these six chatrooms host 400 sex chatters daily.
Chat room or channel #kantutan had the most
chatters. Even at daytime, it has more than 100 visitors. At the
time The Times visited the channels, on a Friday night the number of
visitors reached 146—most of whom were looking for “SEB” mates
who happened to be in the same city or province.
Channel “#kantutan,” based on XGoogle,
another IRC search engine, is maintained and spread as a channel by
at least four Internet networks—ChatX, Talkpinoy, Philchat and
Irctoo. Under each network are several servers that contain and that
could spread the channel on the Internet.
Channel #bi-manila, often visited by gays,
ranked second. On a weeknight, The Times found a total of 114
chatters on the channel. This room appears to attract college
students. Many chatters said they were students at this and that
university and wanted to meet “SEB” chatmates from other
universities.
Chatroom #manila sex was third with a total of
95 chatters followed by #pinoysex, 31; #seb, 5 and #libog, 7.
Part 1
| Part 3 | Part
4 | Conclusion
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