Using similar sites, couples can also perform on camera for the enjoyment of others.In online worlds like Second Life and via webcam-focused chat services, however, Internet sex workers engage in cybersex in exchange for both virtual and real-life currency.Often these personas develop complex past histories for their characters to make the fantasy/roleplay even more life like, thus the evolution of the term "real cybering".Cybersex provides various advantages: For many the primary point of cybersex is the plausible simulation of sexual activity, and this knowledge of the other is not always desired, but this is also criticized as the emptying out of embodied relations.

There is disagreement over whether cybersex is a form of infidelity.

Cybersex can be utilised to write co-written original fiction and fanfiction by role-playing in third person, in forums or communities usually known by the name of 'A Shared Dream'.

It can also be used to gain experience for solo writers who want to write more realistic sex scenes, by exchanging ideas like sex position.

Amongst "serious" roleplayers, cybering may occur as part of a larger plot–the characters involved may be lovers or spouses.

In situations like this, the people typing often consider themselves separate entities from the "people" engaging in the sexual acts, much as the author of a novel often does not completely identify with his or her characters.