X-Rated

The joys of CompuSex

One of the more bizarre aspects of America's love affair with the personal computer is the growing popularity of CompuSex. This is a new form of erotic entertainment in which consenting computer owners exchange X-rated messages over the telephone lines. Anyone with a home computer can play, but the most active enthusiasts are found among the 110,000 subscribers of CompuServe, the country's largest computer network. "Eighteen months ago, it was mostly lighthearted flirting," says Dave Payton, a CompuServe regular from West Virginia. "Now people come out with all sorts of obscene propositions right on-line."

The action begins at 6 p.m., when CompuServe's rates drop from $12 an hour to $6, and is limited to the so-called CB channels, the computer version of Citizens Band radio. Each week thousands tune in to CB to chat with other users, and many of them end up on Channel 1, the channel designated for adults. Sometimes 40 people will be on-line at once, their pseudonymous messages scrolling by on the screen faster than the eye can read. "I'm nibbling your earlobe," begins a typical come-on. Reply: "Not so hard!" Men, sporting such nicknames as "Conan the Librarian" and "Loverboy," outnumber women about 4 to 1, and anyone signing on as "Karen the Nympho" will be besieged with requests to TALK. This is the command that allows two users to exchange intimacies in private. Couples who hit it off have traded phone numbers, photographs and, on at least five occasions, wedding bands. Tiresome swains can be cut off with a keystroke.

"It's a fascinating alternative to the normal courtship routine," says Andrew Schlein, a psychology Ph.D. who signs on as "Psydoc." He compares it to the experience of strangers thrown together in the cabin of an airplane, where closeness and anonymity allow an intimacy that might never happen in other circumstances.

Many computer buffs find these pleasures habit forming: about 200 CB users tune in every night. Others have trouble separating computer-mediated fantasy from reality. One 35-year-old woman grew so addicted to CompuSex that her husband walked out, complaining that she was neglecting him for her machine. She then hooked up with a series of online lovers who were either disappointing or disappointed when she met them in the flesh. Now, complaining that her life is a mess, she is organizing a support group for women having similar difficulties.