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Purpose

Today’s youth use the Internet for everything from online shopping to accessing health-related information. Some lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth perceive the Internet as a “lifeline” allowing access to individuals of similar experiences often unavailable in their day-to-day lives and communities. Among adult men who have sex with other men (MSM), the Internet has emerged as a popular venue for meeting sexual partners and has been linked to high risk behaviors and increased risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In contrast, little is known about the Internet and sexual risk behaviors of adolescent and young adult MSM. We examined the prevalence of Internet use for meeting sexual partners and high risk sexual and substance use behaviors in young MSM (YMSM) age 16-24.

Methods

A convenience sample of 224 ethnically-diverse YMSM was recruited from an urban …