One in 10 women using the internet have made love to a man they first met online at work, according to a survey.

Nearly 25% of the 2,000 secretaries, executives and students asked on the website newwomanonline.co.uk had formed a "romantic friendship" over the web.

The women, average age 27, would typically devote 102 minutes a day chatting online to their love mates at work.

Most of them eventually met, with Londoners being most likely to have sex with their web lovers.

Some met strangers in chatrooms, others would eye colleagues at work and strike up relationships by email. The website creators posted the survey, for workers aged 18-40, online. They believed young workers, whose private lives had been squeezed out by longer hours in the office, had been forced to seek romance at their terminal.

A spokeswoman for Newwomanonline, Carmel Hayes, said the explosion in internet romance "took the fear of rejection out of meeting people".
Press Association

Useful link: New Woman Online survey