We have all heard about, and often unintentionally encountered, online pornography. While we know it is a problem, I think it is still very surprising to see how prevalent and available it really is. While these statistics are a few years old, they paint a very informative picture as to the enormity of this industry.
In 2006, as a whole, the world-wide pornography industry (movies, phone sex, bookstores, internet, etc.) generated $97.06 billion.
That is more than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Ebay, Apple, Yahoo, Netflix, and Earthlink combined. As of 2006, there were 4.2 million websites (12% of the total number of websites) containing pornography. Additionally, 42.7% of Internet users viewed porn and there were 68 million pornographic search engine requests each day.
Sex, in general, is the most frequently searched topic on the Internet
Patrick Carnes points out that “70% of internet pornography traffic occurs between nine and five” and other research indicates that one in six employees have trouble with sexual behavior online. Within the United States, the majority of Internet users are college-educated, white, married men with an average age of 37.6 years. Most alarming is that the majority of people struggling with sexual addictions and compulsivities involving the Internet are married, heterosexual males. According to a survey conducted by the Marital and Sexuality Center and MSNBC (2002), 6.5% of male Internet users reported spending nearly six hours per week engaging in cybersex.
