Manhunt.net

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Manhunt.net is a social networking website operated by Online Buddies, Inc., that facilitates same-sex male online dating and casual sex. It is owned by its founders, Jonathan Crutchley and Larry Basile.^[1] The site has over 1.2 million profiles worldwide, over 1 million of which are active.^{[citation needed]} It is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

1 History
2 Characteristics
3 Health
4 Privacy
5 Victimization
6 External links
7 References

[edit] History

The official launch date of the Manhunt venture was April 1, 2002. Originally a telephone dating service limited to the Boston-area, busines declined when more men began to go online to find partners. According to Crutchley:

We decided if the business was going to continue in the long run we needed to put up a website, have guys use the website, and, if it was going to be successful, get them to pay to use the website...The potential’s global, and we’ve reached the tipping point now where there are more subscribers outside the U.S. than in the U.S.^[2]

The company now serves all of North America, the European Union, Australia, Latin America and more, continually expanding. The website is available in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German. Manhunt.jp (マンハント.jp, Manhanto dotto jēpī^?) serves Japan. As of December 2006, an independent tracking agency ranked Manhunt as the largest GLBT-targeted site online, surpassing long-time leader Gay.com.^[3]

[edit] Characteristics

Although some profiles are of a non-sexual nature and explicitly state that they are not cruising for sex, most profiles are either overtly sexual or express an open-mindedness towards the possibility of sex through phrases such as “...up for whatever” or “...let's see what happens.”

Many profiles on the site are sexually explicit and include nude photographs and graphic language. However, certain terms of disparagement are automatically censored by the software. References to illegal drug use (such as “PNP”) are also disallowed, as are all phrases that might be construed as being related to prostitution (e.g., “I am generous” or “I am looking for generous...”).

[edit] Health

Manhunt.net partners with 130 community health organizations nationwide, including the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Each has a screenname, and the organizations' ads appear on the site alongside members' personal postings. Sixteen of these are partner notification profiles serve as anonymous intermediaries that allow members to inform each other when they may have come in contact with an STD. One advocate at a center run by the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts was quoted in the Boston Herald as saying "In comparison to lots of other sites, it's light-years ahead."^[4]

Nevertheless, Manhunt does not prohibit members from advertising a preference for unsafe sex practices through phrases such as “bareback only.” Manhunt's general manager told New York Magazine:

It all boils down to personal choice. We believe that people have the right to PNP or not to PNP, to use condoms or not use condoms. What we hope is that people will back up their choices with responsible behavior. We provided an empty site and our customers have filled it. But the majority of them don’t PNP or bareback [...] what we hope is that people will back up their choices with responsible behavior.^[5]

[edit] Privacy

About half of Manhunt members show their faces in their profiles.

In one case, a Richmond, Virginia, school board chairman's Manhunt profile was discovered by a Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter. This led to the chairman’s resignation and his expression that "I displayed an inappropriate lack of judgment." Accounts of the incident seemed to indicate that the chairman's resignation was a result of a perceived breech of decorum rather than a violation of any law or ethical standard.^[6]

[edit] Victimization

The commander of the Washington, DC Police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit said "We've definitely seen an increase in online dating crimes in the past five years" and added that victims of internet dating crimes are "overwhelmingly men cruising for sex." He also noted that criminals are often technologically savvy and create profiles using fake information and other people's photos, making them difficult to trace.^[7]

In an extreme case from 2006, Philadelphia police arrested a man who had used Manhunt and similar sites to rob as many as twenty men in Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, DC. One victim, who stated he may have been incapacitated by "date rape" drug GHB, had his credit cards, passport, checks, and Audi convertible stolen.^[7]

Manhunt's general manager said the company is limited in how it can respond to incidents because of liability and privacy issues: "We get phone calls from all types of people making all kinds of claims...We could be put in a liable position if someone's accusations are not substantiated." ^[7]

Manhunt does delete the profile of a suspected criminal once the company receives a subpoena from the police, but this does not prevent a criminal from creating a new identity and profile.^[7]