London, Aug 6 (IANS): Women who regularly visit pornography sites on internet are at a greater risk of developing cybersex addiction, says a significant study.
Researchers compared the tendency toward cybersex addiction among heterosexual women who do or do not use internet pornography and factors predictive of developing cybersex addiction.
“The authors found that cybersex addiction among heterosexual female users is similar to that of heterosexual males,” said Brenda K. Wiederhold from the Virtual Reality Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium and Interactive Media Institute in San Diego, California.
The team explored the role of anticipating and receiving sexual gratification in the development of cybersex addiction.
Although the study population was only limited to individuals under 30, this helps to advance our understanding of cybersex addiction in females, Wiederhold added in a paper appeared in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
Earlier, German researchers have shown that heavy porn viewing may make some women "hypersexual" - to have sex so frequently that it may cause them problems.
They found behavioural patterns in hypersexual women resembled behaviours previously identified in hypersexual men.
These behaviours include pornography dependence, excessive masturbation and promiscuity.