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Shares in many video game publishers opened sharply lower on Monday in the wake of the news late Friday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into industry accounting practices.

Three publishers thus far -- Acclaim Entertainment Inc AKLM.O , Activision Inc. ATVI.O and THQ Inc. THQI.O have acknowledged receiving letters from the commission requesting information.

All three have said they are cooperating fully, and Activision and THQ said they had been told by the commission not to take the requests for information as any indication that laws had been broken.

THQ shares were off nearly 10 percent at $15.93 after the open, while Activision shares were down 9.3 percent at $11.30. Both stocks were among the top percentage losers. Acclaim shares were off 7.4 percent at 63 cents. All three stocks trade on Nasdaq.

Also trading lower was Take-Two Interactive Software Inc TTWO.O , down 5.3 percent at $26.20, also on Nasdaq. Take-Two is already under its own formal SEC investigation related to its accounting practices.

"We expect there to be uncertainty surrounding the stocks following this announcement," Harris Nesbitt Gerard analyst Edward Williams said in a note Monday. "In our view, the key issue for investors will continue to be to focus on the companies with the strong brand portfolios whose products continue to perform well at retail."

News source: Reuters

Sexual thrills

Chat rooms are the fastest rising cause of relationship breakdowns, according to counselling groups in the US. The problem would get worse as the number of people online continued to rise, said Ms Mileham. For the study, the researcher interviewed men and women who used chat rooms specifically aimed at married couples. She found that most people said they loved their partner. But the anonymity of the net provided an outlet for those seeking an erotic encounter.

"All I have to do is turn on my computer and I have thousands of women to choose from," said one of the men questioned for the study. "It can't get any easier than that."

Most people ventured into the chat rooms because of boredom, a partner's lack of sexual interest, or a desire for variety and fun.

"The number one complaint from men was lack of sex in the marriage," said Ms Mileham. "Many of them said their wife was so involved in child-rearing that she wasn't interested in having sex."

From virtual to real

The study found that what often started out as just friendly chat turned into something much more serious. Almost a third of people taking part in the study went on to meet the person with whom they had made contact. All but two ended up having a real-life affair. In one case, a man had 13 affairs with women he had met over the internet.

"We are hearing from therapists around the country reporting online sexual activity to be a major cause of marital problems," said Al Cooper, author of the book, Sex And The Internet: A Guidebook For Clinicians.

"We need to better understand the contributing factors if we are going to be able to warn people about the slippery slope that starts with online flirting and too often ends in divorce."

For the study, Ms Mileham interviewed with 76 men and 10 women, aged between 25 and 66, who used Yahoo's Married And Flirting or Microsoft's Married But Flirting internet chat rooms.