The P Downside: By The Numbers

INTERNET PORNOGRAPHY

* Worldwide pornography revenue in 2006 was $97.06 billion. Of that, approximately $13 billion was in the United States (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

* Every second, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography, 28,258 Internet viewers are viewing pornography, 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines, and every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is made in the United States (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

* The Top Ten Adult Search Requests in 2006 were for: "sex", "adult dating", "adult DVD", "porn", "sex toys", "teen sex", "free sex", "adult sex", "group sex" and "free porn" (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

* Twelve percent of all websites are pornographic websites. There are 4.2 million pornographic websites, 420 million pornographic web pages, and 68 million daily pornographic search engine requests (or 25% of total search engine requests) (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

* 79% of youth unwanted exposure to pornography occurs in the home (Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later, 2006).

* The largest group of viewers of Internet porn is children between ages 12 and 17(Family Safe Media, December 15, 2005).

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

* Child pornography is one of the fastest growing businesses online, and the content is becoming much worse. In 2004, Internet Watch Foundation found 3,433 child abuse domains; in their 2006 annual report, they knew of 10,656 child abuse domains (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2006).

* Of all known child abuse domains, 54 percent are housed in the United States (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2006).

* The fastest growing demand in commercial websites for child abuse is for images depicting the worst type of abuse, including penetrative sexual activity involving children and adults and sadism or penetration by an animal (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2006).

* Gnutella has 116,000 daily "child pornography" requests (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

* In a study of arrested child pornography possessors, 40 percent had both sexually victimized children and were in possession of child pornography. Of those arrested between 2000 and 2001, 83 percent had images involving children between the ages 6 and 12; 39 percent had images of children between ages 3 and 5; and 19% had images of infants and toddlers under age 3 (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Child Pornography Possessors Arrested in Internet-Related Crimes: Findings fro the National Juvenile Online Victimization Study. 2005).

* According to a National Children's Homes report, the number of Internet child pornography images has increased 1500% since 1988. Approximately 20% of all Internet pornography involves children, and more than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the Internet every week (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Internet Sex Crimes Against Minors: The Response of Law Enforcement. Virginia: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2003).

* Child pornography has become a $3 billion annual industry (Top Ten Reviews, 2005).

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

* Of substantiated reports of child abuse in 2005, 23 percent for teens ages 16 and older involved physical abuse and 17 percent involved sexual abuse. Among substantiated reports for children ages 0-3, 12 percent involved physical abuse and 2 percent involved sexual abuse (America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being. Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, 2007).

* A New Zealand Internal Affairs study suggests that there is an association between viewing child pornography and committing child sexual abuse (New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs. Internet Traders of Child Pornography: Profiling Research. By Caroline Sullivan. October 2005. January 10, 2006).

* The sexual victimization of children is overwhelming in magnitude yet largely unrecognized and underreported. Research indicates that 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys will be sexually victimized before adulthood (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).

* One in four women reported childhood sexual abuse and in most cases perpetrated by males (Long-Term Consequences of Childhood Sexual Abuse by Gender of Victim. Volume 28, Issue 5. The American Journal of Preventative Medicine. June 2005).

MOBILE PORN

* In 2005, worldwide revenue from mobile phone pornography was expected to rise to $1 billion and expected grow to three times that number or more within a few years (Bryan-Low, Cassel and Pringle, David. "Sex Cells: Wireless Operators Find That Racy Cellphone Video Drives Surge in Broadband Use." The Wall Street Journal. May 12, 2005.)

* According to IDC, a technology research firm, by the end of 2004 approximately 21 million 5- to 19-year-olds had wireless phones.

* Adult content on mobile telephones and other portable devices is anticipated to hit $1 billion in worldwide revenues during 2005, according to market research firm Juniper Research. (Juniper Research, "Adult to Mobile: Personal Services," February 2005)

* The Juniper report said a 50 percent hike in mobile porn revenues for 2005 over 2004 is likeliest to come from Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions, but by 2009 the world mobile porn market could well enough hit $2.1 billion. (Juniper Research, "Adult to Mobile: Personal Services," February 2005)

heres is the stats i got from webmd.com


Internet Porn Reaches Most Teens
Youths' Porn Exposure Mostly Unwanted; Blocking Not 100% Effective
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Feb. 5, 2007 -- Internet pornography reaches most teens and many preteens -- and most of these porn exposures are unwanted, a telephone survey finds.

The survey comes from Janis Wolak, JD, and colleagues at the University of New Hampshire's Crimes against Children Research Center. Wolak's team asked a national sample of parents for permission to interview their 10- to 17-year-old children about exposure to Internet pornography.

Just under half the parents agreed to allow the children to speak privately with the researchers by telephone.

Between March and June 2005, 1,422 children gave adequate responses for analysis.

The main findings:

* 42% of youths age 10-17 had seen Internet porn in the past year.
* Two-thirds of youth exposures to Internet porn were unwanted. (However, not all unwanted exposure to porn was unintentional: 21% of the time, kids knew they were entering X-rated web sites.)
* Boys were exposed to Internet porn far more often than were girls.
* Boys are nine times more likely than girls to seek out Internet porn.
* Teens, especially those age 16-17, are far more likely than younger kids to view online porn, either accidentally or on purpose. For example, more than two-thirds of boys 16-17 had been exposed to online porn.
* Youth exposure to Internet porn is fairly common. Unwanted porn found its way to 17% of 10- to 11-year-old boys, 16% of girls 10 to 11 years old.
* Most youth said they were not upset by the images they saw.
* Some youths -- those who report victimization by others when not on the Internet, and those with borderline or significant depression -- may be especially vulnerable to the negative effects of Internet pornography.

Filtering and blocking programs reduce Internet porn exposure, but do not eliminate it.

Use of file-sharing programs increased the odds of both wanted and unwanted porn exposure. Meanwhile, law-enforcement presentations about how to avoid Internet porn cut the odds of unwanted porn exposure.

The findings appear in the February issue of Pediatrics.
Teen Internet Porn Exposure the Norm

Parents and people who work with youths "should assume that most boys of high school age who use the Internet have some degree of exposure to online pornography, as do many girls," Wolak and colleagues conclude.

How bad a thing is this? Despite the disagreeable idea of young people being exposed to grotesque images, nobody really knows.

"Sexual curiosity among teenage boys is normal, and many might say that visiting X-rated web sites is developmentally appropriate behavior," Wolak and colleagues note.

"However, some researchers have expressed concern that exposure to online pornography during adolescence my lead to a variety of negative consequences," they continue.

These feared consequences include the undermining of acceptable social values and attitudes about sexual behavior, earlier and more promiscuous sex, sexual deviancy, sexual offending, and sexually compulsive behavior.

"It is by no means established that online pornography acts as a trigger for any of these problems," Wolak and colleagues note.

But they suggest these effects could be exaggerated in particularly vulnerable youth. Even if such youths are a small percentage of the population, widespread exposure to Internet porn means that a large number of children could be affected.

The researchers note that there's been very little research on the topic. Until more is known, they advise educating youth about how to avoid Internet porn.

They also warn health professionals and parents not to shy away from the topic.

"Frank, direct conversations with youth that address the possible influences of pornography on sexual behavior, attitudes about sex, and relationships are needed," Wolak and colleagues advise.