The Fascination of Virtual Sex in Second Life

        Why does sex industry so popular in Second Life, and from what need do people want virtual sex?

        In reality, people used to think sex as something more private that when it comes to the discussion of sex in public, it often relates to morality and social relationship. So when a person is talking about sex or his/her sexual experience in public, he/she may be at the risk of his/her reputation or even the political life, if he/she carelessly talks about it. However, thanks to the advance of technology, people can talk it more freely in Internet's world without worrying about the things above. In Second Life's world, the residents not only talk, insult by words of sexual implications but they even display sex in public by avatars. It seems that the world itself is projected into SL's world except that the force of social restraint lessens in the virtual world, thus people can do whatever they want without being known by their families and friends in reality. By this, SL acts as a medium for intimate communication to satisfy people's needs and desires.

        It is interesting that many people are fascinated by virtual sex in SL,because of the separation of reality. Without physical contact, virtual sex in some ways is alienated from real sex that it doesn't necessarily have love or sexual desire involved. On the contrary, people may do it for fun or merely by curiosity, or as an act of showing familiarity. Hence, sex industry in SL seems to be a kind of entertaining industry that deals with the desire of self-display (displaying sex in various ways in public) and the pursuit of visual impact more than the desire for physical contact.
Besides the common wantons, some residents of SL become the stars in sex industry and earn money to support real lives. Because of the untouchable trait of virtual sex, they can do it legally and avoid the possible criticism.