Just a simple PR ploy.
Our First Time was touted as a serious attempt to examine teenage sexuality. The site promised us that two until-then celibate teenagers were going to consummate their relationship online, after discussing the issue (what was left to discuss?) on their website. (Among other items that were supposed to generate interest in the site, the two teenagers were going to be AIDS tested, for example.) It was the summer of 1998, and people still thought the internet was virgin territory for just about anything. I don't know how much time transpired from the first information made public about this site until it was exposed, but it wasn't very long. Were people surprised that this was actually a scam? Probably not, though perhaps it was surprising to discover that the hoster of Our First Time - a very adult-content site - claimed that it had been duped into hosting the scam, and when it discovered that someone had pulled the wool over its eyes, it withdrew its promotion of the event. This host (the Internet Entertainment Group) informed the world that it wouldn't steep to deceiving the public in such a way. It was, apparently a case of "I may be a pornographer, but I'd never tell a lie!".
Go to: Maybe it does, or
Go to: Why shouldn't it be true?, or
Go to: A life (sort of) lived.