Fifty-one percent of respondents were female and 49 percent were male. Of these, 53 percent of students had sex over instant messenger while 44 percent made love to a partner via webcam or telephone.

Young Canadians are digitizing their sex lives, embracing computer screens and touching keyboards ever so gently in lieu of person to person contact, according to a new survey.

Some 87 percent of 2,484 students polled at 150 colleges and universities across Canada reported having "virtual sex" over instant messenger, webcams or the telephone.

"We were very surprised that the number was so high," said Noah Gurza of Toronto-based online dating service CampusKiss.com, which commissioned the Kiss and Tell survey.

"It's a testament that the Internet has spawned a new sexual revolution."

Most of these students, aged 18 to 23 years, grew up using computers and continue to be surrounded by technology, whether for education, interacting with friends, or researching information, Gurza said.

"Using the Internet is second nature to them, so it makes sense that it would extend to other aspects of their lives, including sexual experiences," he said.

For some who feel more comfortable approaching people online than at a bar "it's a social lubricant," while others prefer the anonymity "to explore sex in ways they wouldn't in real life," he added.