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public libraries, where 77 million people regularlyaccess the internet, 25% of them aged 14 to 24years old. Blocks are triggered by keyword searchesincluding, for example, “anal”, “abortion”, “homosexuality”,“breast” and “penis”, denying access toadult content, but also, inadvertently, to informationon issues such as breast cancer or anal warts,and to websites run by sexual minority groups andorganisations. 4 Terms such as “gay” or “sex” arealso often intentionally blocked. The researchersreported:In the United States, minors who use computersin public libraries and school libraries maybe restricted from accessing content deemed“harmful to minors”. This harm is not clearly definedor located, but what is typically restrictedis information about sexuality. There are a rangeof concerns about the dangers of sexuality andtechnology. Moral panics about children and theavailability of and exposure to pornography andpaedophiles in cyberspace have been behindseveral efforts to control and/or censor the internet.5Risks and promisesInteractivity and anonymity online are defining featuresof many forms of online sociability, promisingprecious opportunities to elaborate ideas and identities– in particular, for stigmatised and marginalisedsubjects, including women and sexual minorities.Since physical co-presence is not a requirement foronline interaction, alternative self-representationsmay be chosen in response to multiple contextualpossibilities, restrictions and aspirations. One consequenceof this is the possibility for anonymous engagement,enabling interactions otherwise unlikelyto take place, or only possible under the most strenuouscircumstances. Online exchanges often providea sort of safe haven for sexual experiences bannedfrom the reality of users’ everyday exchanges in theoffline world. In other words, the internet is a spacepropitious to non-normative expressions. Furthermore,online activity is crucial for the articulation andnegotiation of public issues that are barred, tabooed,restricted or subject to regulation offline.Online interaction takes on a particularly meaningfulrole for sexual expression. Online forumshave, for example, provided a “safe” environmentfor gender dissidents to experiment with their genderidentity even before starting to consider engagingin a transition process. But these qualities4 www.apc.org/en/pubs/erotics-research5 Ibid.expose users to a variety of risks regarding theirsafety and privacy. A person’s transgender identitycan be disclosed as a consequence of an online privacybreach, before they are ready, and without theirconsent. Although often lived as private, online interactionis part of a public domain – potentiallyvulnerable to unwanted interference, open to publicscrutiny, and subject to regulation and surveillance.Like sexuality, the internet promises pleasure andrepresents danger; it may be appropriated by actorswith different moral engagements.Sexuality onlineInteractivity has become vital to the consumptionof cultural goods. Rather than passive receptors,individuals and collectives are involved as activeparticipants of communication processes. Mediasegmentation is inherent to a consumerist modeland logic, vigorously expressed by internet communications,which are primarily oriented to thesatisfaction of social groups’ specific wishes andneeds. Such groups are often defined by particular“lifestyles”, associated with collectively sharedinclinations and sensibilities involving consumption,aesthetics and habits but, more importantly,engendering collective identities – sexual identitiesin particular. Virtual interaction opens a number ofpossibilities for exchanges which can be classifiedas sexual, meaning both actual sexual behaviour, aswell as issues related to sexuality, such as sexualidentities, sexual politics or sexual knowledge. Inthis broad sense, online “sexual” exchanges can beclassified among different – often overlapping – interactiondynamics.One mode of online interaction comprises exchangenetworks that can be characterised as“sexual markets”. These include, on the one hand,commercial virtual marketplaces, for interactionsunderstood as services with money value, such asboth female and male escort services, in a myriad offormats available online. On the other hand, sexualmarkets also include non-commercial exchanges,not mediated by money, such as those that takeplace on online services for dating, matchmakingand casual encounters, and social networkingplatforms. However, from their users’ perspective,the boundaries between commercial and non-commercialexchanges are fluid, regardless of their declaredpurpose. Some matchmaking websites mayfacilitate exchanges of paid sexual services, whileone might find a lifelong partner at a platform designedfor casual encounters. Money, goods andservices, on the one hand, and consensual sex orromantic involvement, on the other, are not mutu-33 / Global Information Society Watch