''Our First Time'' (OFT) was one of the first widely popularized Internet

hoax A hoax (plural: hoaxes) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false and often astonishing information, with the either malicious or humorous intent of causing shock and interest in as many people as possible. S ...

es. Eighteen-year-olds "Mike" and "Diane" made a public announcement declaring their intention to lose their

virginity Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereo ...

. The event would be broadcast live on ourfirsttime.com, so visitors could share the "experience". OFT, which promoted itself as a free public service educational website, followed Mike and Diane day by day from July 18 to July 21, 1998, through

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

tests, condom selection, and telling their parents about their decision. So many millions of people attempted to view the site that the server crashed. The Internet Entertainment Group agreed to host it in exchange for links to their pornographic content. Over time, some began to suspect it was a hoax. Mike and Diane looked older than 18 and appeared to be actors. "Mike" turned out to be Alabama actor Ty Taylor, and "Diane" turned out to be Michelle Parma, a former

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

cheerleader. The enterprise fizzled when IEG backed out after the producer, Ken Tipton, revealed that his plan was to make money by charging Internet users $5 each for "age-verification" but planned for the couple to decide to abstain on the day set for the deflowering.

References

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Bibliography

* "Web's Virginity Event A Hoax, Company's Executive Says", Chicago Tribune, July 18, 1998.
''Our First Time''
at

Museum of Hoaxes The Museum of Hoaxes is a website created by Alex Boese in 1997 in San Diego, California, as a resource for reporting and discussing hoax A hoax (plural: hoaxes) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false a ...

* "Cyber Hoa

H. B. Koplowitz, 1998. Internet hoaxes Defunct websites 1998 hoaxes