Australian women believe that cyber sex constitutes more serious cheating than going to a strip club or watching pornography.

A survey of 1,117 internet users conducted by a lecturer at the College of Social and Health Sciences at the University of Western Sydney showed that people see little difference between virtual and regular relationships.

Almost all surfers ranked cyber sex as cheating which, although not as bad as being physically unfaithful, is much worse than watching a stripper or pornography.

Most considered cyber sex and "sharing intimate information with others online" as acts of infidelity, and 41 per cent see no difference between online and offline affairs.

Women were less likely to see any difference between an online affair and the real thing.

However, more than 30 per cent of survey participants confessed to having what they would define as an online affair.

The survey concluded that engaging in erotic communications online, while not as threatening as offline sexual encounters, did threaten relationships, even though the people often never met.