by Elizabeth Arnum

Created on: April 28, 2007   Last Updated: May 17, 2007

The Internet: what a truly amazing place to meet people! With a single click of a button, one can find themselves in a virtual room with dozens of other people, most of whom would be forever out of one's range of knowledge. People in India, America, Japan, Brazil, Turkey... All in one place. The world at your fingertips; everything in the click of a mouse button.

A few clicks in the right places, you might even find yourself in love. But what if you were already in love with someone else? This is where problems arise. According to a poll by the New York Daily news, four divorces in that area occurred because of online relationships, and divorce expert Dean Hughson received four letters in one month from men whose wives had left them for their online lovers.

According to Erin Elizabeth Smith in a survey of Internet users, 19% of the responses had relationships with someone they met online while involved with another in real life. Of this 19%, all but two met their online interest in real life, and all but one claim that they were more "in love" with their long distance admirers than their more tangible ones.

This could create a problem. Is a virtual relationship virtual cheating? It seems to be uncertain.. A man who goes by "gary1" had this to say: "The issue of [virtual] cheating? It falls to one's values: if it is harmless role-playing, how can it construed as cheating? Yet, if it is the role-playing that takes away from a relationship that one has committed to, what difference is there in that and the commitment of the actual act? I guess I would have to say that it again is not a black and white issue, but depends on the circumstances."

One of the problems that has been studied in online relationships is that of dishonesty: couples who begin to have romantic feelings for each other online may not be telling each other the complete and honest truth about who they are. The amount of people who are sure they have met the person they will spend their lives with online, only to find out that they have nothing in common with the person face-to-face, is overwhelming.

A chilling example of this need for a "Caveat Emptor" mentality comes from a man who is known simply as Lasher99. "I'm one of those bastards that hangs out in chat rooms pretending to be 'someone,' and I do it purely for the entertainment value. To me, it's just another fantasy to act out. It's just mind-numbing to me that people can meet in a chat room and take things so seriously.

"I live my life as the

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