LONDON — According to a recent survey by The Sun columnist Deidre Sanders, “huge numbers of people are using the net to cheat on partners, and internet porn is destroying their sex lives.”In a survey of 4,000 “Dear Deidre” readers, Sanders discovered one in three people used the Web to find sex partners. Of those, 10-percent said they’d had sexual relations with 11 or more of the people they met online. In addition, 25-percent of respondents said they used the internet to cheat on their spouses or significant others.

Perhaps most striking: 80-percent of respondents admitted they have at least looked at virtual pornography. Slightly more women than men admitted to enjoying softcore material on the Web, and 75-percent of the male respondents said they regularly view hardcore websites. Two-thirds of them said their partners are unaware of their virtual viewing habits.

Although some respondents complained that their “lives were wrecked by internet sex,” 80-percent said the Web’s open frontiers actually have improved their sex lives. “Many said they even found their long-term partner via internet dating sites,” Sanders noted.

“…I have been amazed over recent years by the way the internet and mobile phones have affected how we form relationships, how we behave within them, how many sex partners we have and even what we do with them in the privacy of our own homes,” she wrote. “Sex education these days needs to include the rules for safe sex on the internet — and tactics to help the addicted wean themselves off quick online thrills and move on to real-life, caring relationships.”