INTERNET AND PORN JUNKIES

In the news today -

INTERNET DATING TURNS INTO REALITY TV: The Ashley Madison Agency is the basis for a new reality TV program to be produced by two Hollywood heavy-hitters. The program focuses on The Ashley Madison Agency, a real life matchmaking service that caters to attached people seeking extramarital affairs and will delve into why people stray, profiling actual members and following them as they make connections, play trysts and go on dates. The Ashley Madison Agency has taken the world of Internet dating to a whole new level since its launch in early 2002. With signups in the thousands every month it is the world's largest and fastest-growing online social networking community of its kind.

WOMEN CAN BE PORN JUNKIES TOO: Women who look at online porn are just as likely as men to become smut junkies -- a habit as potent as heroin addiction -- and it's causing many to download themselves out of house and home, researchers say. "The old school of thought was that women couldn't become porn addicts, just like they couldn't become alcoholics," Virtual Addiction author Dr. David Greenfield, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut, told the New York Post. But according to Nielsen//NetRatings, 28 percent of all Americans who visited porn sites last month were women. "We're now seeing widespread abuse of porn by women, which can lead to job loss or the breakup of their primary relationship," Greenfield said.
Manhattan psychotherapist Gail Appel says that that four years ago, none of her female patients were Internet-porn junkies. Today they make up at least 5 percent of her practice. She says that female porn addicts are typically in their late 20s to 30s -- married or single, straight or gay -- who spend six hours or more a day online.