After 3 years of interrogation into the politics of sexuality and the internet, the EROTICS research is out! This second part of the GenderIT.org edition 'EroTICs: Sex, rights, and the net' publish the full research findings that delve into the complexities of policy and legislative trends on internet content regulation, map key actors and processes, and document how sexuality figures as a central theme in this debate. The reports also showcase the value of the internet in the exercise of rights by people of diverse sexualities.


Read introduction to this edition by Mabel Bianco, the president and founder of the Foundation for Study and Research on Women in Argentina.


Get intimate with the EROTICS research findings through a series of posts by the GenderIT bloggers. They provide a window into the rich and complex universe of the 3-year EROTICS project.


Find out more about the EROTICS research and its impacts via interviews with the EroTICs researchers and the experts involved within the fields of the internet governance, sexuality and women's rights.


Flashback with GenderIT.org and check out the articles and blogs on key milestones in the EROTICS story.

Brazil: An ethnographic approach – mapping sexuality on Orkut

Flavia Fascendini explores two communities on the Orkut social networking site on sexuality: one is a forum for anti-lesbian prejudice, and the second is a community aimed at legitimising romantic relationships between adults and adolescents. Both groups were studied as the part of the Brazilian EROTICS research project that focused on mapping the dynamic and complex policy shifts on internet regulation debates in Brazil.

USA: EROTICS responses to the Denver library - a fictional exchange on real foundations

Tapping the groundbreaking findings of the US EROTICS report that investigated the mandated internet filtering in publicly-funded libraries, Flavia Fascendini leads a fictional dialogue with the Denver Public Library FAQ on content regulation.

Thanks for All the Cash!

Maya Ganesh shares her experience at the VIII International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society Conference (IASSCS) at a presentation about sexual rights activism in the middle east.

India: Government should get out of the way

The net has often been portrayed by the media in India as "being a lair of sexual predators". Grady looks at some of the contradictions between policy and practice that were revealed by the EROTICS research in India, which explored the ways that young women negotiate risks online as they strategically use the internet to explore, define and challenge boundaries of gender and sexual norms.
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Sex and the Net -- It starts with rights

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As the EROTICS research shows, individuals and communities in a diverse range of contexts use the internet in countless ways to explore and express their sexuality. Any debate regarding sexuality online must begin with an affirmation of sexual rights.

New research on sexuality and the internet is an “eye-opener”

Gus Hossein, Director of Privacy International, speaks candidly of his take on the EROTICS research project and its potential impact and value on the work on privacy rights.

Lebanon and USA: Where is the line for sex on the internet?

GenderIT.org contributor Mavic Cabrera-Balleza speaks with EroTICS researchers Melissa Hope Ditmore and Kevicha Echols as well as LGBT activist Nadine Moawad about the role of the internet in our sexual lives. They talk about the effect that filtering and censorship have on sexual expression and access to information, particularly for youth and LGBT persons.

EROTICS raises fascinating new questions

The EroTICs research of sexuality and the internet revealed that contrary to much public opinion, sexuality online is much more than just pornography. As the EroTICs project comes to a close, GenderIT.org's writer Grady Johnson asked some of the experts to share their thoughts about the research.