Erotic / pornographic sites (from now on: X-sites [1]) are among the most popular on the internet and form one of its constitutive moments. Worldwide there are, depending on the estimation, between two and ten million of them. They signify a phenomenon of important dimensions, whose economic, societal and cultural consequences are hardly surveyable, but that surely are and will become gigantic.

Cybersex in online chat rooms is defined here as having two forms: 1) computer mediated interactive masturbation in real time and, 2) computer mediated telling of interactive sexual stories (in real time) with the intent of arousal. Both of these forms of cybersex are found on America Online. Ethnographic methods are used in researching and writing this paper.