It’s more than once been suggested that I join an online dating website, being the single gal that I am, but uhhh…this new report might not be the best advertisement ever.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, our pals to the north aren’t practicing safe sex, and online dating might be to blame. The group found that their country had seen a marked increase in chlamydia cases in the past 10 years – a jump of almost 66 percent, to be exact – while the online dating world had simultaneously exploded. Coincidence? They think not. Though there’s no real hard evidence, there’s some pretty convincing facts that are hard to ignore.
Online dating creates a greater perception of intimacy before actually meeting your “match”, and thus, daters end up trusting each other way more than they should before meeting. And so, many times, they say to themselves, “Hey, this guy I’ve been getting to know for x amount of months doesn’t have syphilis, so should the sexual situation arise, well, if we don’t have a condom, I’ll be fine.” Wrong, people. SO, SO WRONG! What happened to a little good, old fashioned skepticism?!
Middle-aged men and women make up a large part of the online dating population – many of whom have been in monogamous, committed relationships for however long and are just re-entering the dating scene – and thus, are either not used to using protection on a regular basis, or, in the case of some women, are simply not able to become pregnant anymore. Alright, good excuse, I guess, but STDs still exist, and if you’re not worried about a bun in the oven, you should be worried about the possibility of having icky, weird stuff going on down there for the indefinite future.
And it’s not exclusively a Canadian phenomenon either. The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta conducted a survey in 2004 which concluded that 43 percent of the women (no specifics on age, here) who participated had sex with someone they met first online and had a high rate of sexually transmitted diseases. Gross. The good news is that because of these statistics and the crazy stuff going on over the border, many health departments in the US are working with online dating sites to educate users and make sure these numbers dwindle.
In the meantime, certain STDs are reported to be on the rise. Proceed with caution, Lovelies! (via Jezebel)
Have you used online dating sites?
guest
I met my boyfriend from online dating… So I don’t think online is to blame. Its the people on the computer who don’t share that stuff. They are to blame. You can get std’s even if you didn’t meant your SO online.
guest
Of course there will be a correlation between online dating an STDs. I am guessing a majority of people DO online dating. It seems, at least to me, that it’s nearly impossible to find someone in person (or maybe I am just the least desirable person ever, IDK) so yes, there will be a significant number of people who will get STDs from people they met online, though I highly doubt it is any more than if they would have met in person. I’m going to go ahead an throw this out there, higher STD rates are more likely correlated with a higher divorce rate, people getting married later while going through puberty younger, and the societal EXPECTATION (not even acceptance at this point, but expectation) that you will have premarital and casual sex with multiple people.
guest
I have not used online dating sites, but I can see how online dating can create a false sense of trust before physically meeting and the odds of people getting sexually involved may or may not occur sooner than if one just met someone in person for the first time. However, I don’t think online dating services should be blamed for an individual’s predicament due to poor choices. Ultimately, the dating site user decides whether or not to learn more background information, discussing the possible outcomes and/or contraceptive usage. Saying, “I got syphilis because I met him online and we didn’t protect ourselves,” is a poor excuse. I know having premarital sexual intercourse is somewhat widely accepted by society but that’s no reason to behave stupidly. The facts haven’t changed in regards to the the possibility of contracting a venereal disease or getting pregnant. You can still be in either situation whether you met for the first time in person or online, either one can occur if you participate in sexual activity. Think with your brain, not your crotch.
guest
No. I honestly don’t think so. In the 80s and 90s there was the HIV scare. You could get a disease, have it for the rest of your life, and die from it. In the 80s and 90s before the anti-viral cocktails they have now, people were more likely to die than to survive. It was in the news, in magazines, and if there were social networking on-line, it would have been all over those as well. In my teens and 20s I was more worried about HIV than I was about getting pregnant. A baby would have made my life difficult; HIV was a death sentence. HIV is not in the news like it used to be. The media doesn’t talk about it like they used to. People have become relaxed about it. STDs are on the rise regardless of how people meet. The internet just puts more people into contact with each other.
daisy / 727 posts
I met my ex online, not on a dating site though. Neither of us would have ever have had sex with each other without a condom and we were only 17 and 18 at the time. Even at 21 we were still using condoms. Better safe than sorry. I don’t think online dating is necessarily to blame. I think there are a lot of other factors to consider.
guest
I wouldn’t blame online dating. Sure it allows people to date more and easily but it’s not online dating that is making people put out so easily. Gotta blame the people for being so easy and unsafe with sex.
guest
Blame human stupidity, not online dating.
rose / 937 posts
uh… Ahem, Canadians are using protection :/
And it’s not online dating, it’s people being stupid and a) having sex with someone you barely know, and b) not using protection. And online dating doesn’t breed such behaviour, it will already exist in people. Online dating just provides more chances to date, which can mean that an increase in sex and thus increase in STIs may be found.
But, you know, correlation does not equal causation.
guest
interesting theory. Obviously online dating itself doesn’t cause it (rolls eyes)…but this trust theory seems to make sense! Even though I think that people taking it more lightly in general is the real cause. Anyway it’s good they educate people on it …there more education the better.
guest
Blaming online dating for STDs is like blaming god for religious killings. Or something like that.
Use condoms or don’t have risky sex.
guest
casual hook ups are to blame.
guest
“And it’s not exclusively a Canadian phenomenon either.”-……lmao
guest
If your online new boyfriend has just been intimate with you, then he’s probably been intimate with many, many others. And vice versa. There’s just no way people are getting tested for the high numbers of times they are having un protected sex.
guest
Umm… no?? It’s that our society has completely trivialized sex and unprotected sex. It’s more acceptable to have one night stands, regardless of how you met them, than it was before.
guest
@Erika_Steele@xanga - Agreed 100%.
guest
Correlation doesn’t equal causation.