Online sexual activity: Cross-national comparison between united states and peruvian college students

Thecurrent generation of college students commonly uses the Internet for myriad sexually-related purposes. Yet, it has been suggested that usage of the Internet for sexual purposes might lead to psychological problems. In this study, undergraduate students froma public university in the U.S. (n= 320) and Peru (n=251) completed questionnaires addressing their online sexual activity (OSA), psychological adjustment, and family environment and communication. Results indicated that Peruvians used the Internet significantly more than U.S. students to view sexually-explicitmaterial (SEM), find sexual partners, and search for sex-related information.Men, irrespective of nationality, used the Internet to view SEM significantly more than women. Social support, religiosity, and erotophilia were found to moderate the relations between nationality and OSA.Inabsoluteterms,bothnationalgroups,onaverage,engaged in OSA a relatively low number of hours each week. Further, no differences were found in maladjustment between those who engage in OSA and those who do not, suggesting that concerns over OSA are probably unwarranted.