The P Downside: By The Numbers

[bailerq]

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.

[Daniel]

I wanted this thread to highlight the cold data and qualitative research illustrating the immensity of the damage P is inflicting upon society at large.

We know very well what the personal carnage looks like.

Here is a look at how far the roots extend.

Needless to say it looks as though TTF will have a very long future.

Thank God we have TTF and are here together to fight the war.

Thank you to Vorlan for putting the numbers in his journal in the first place.

If anyone else comes across research in this vein, feel free to post it here.

• In 2004, there were 372 million pornographic Web pages, 2.5 billion emails (8% of total emails), 100 thousand Web sites offering illegal child pornography, and 72 million annual worldwide visitors to pornographic websites.
• 70% of 18 to 24 year old men visit pornographic sites in a typical month. 66% of men in their 20s and 30s also report being regular users of pornography.
• One out of every six women grapples with addiction to pornography.
• 9.3 million women access adult websites each month.
• 65-75% of women in pornography and prostitution were abused as children - usually in their own homes.
• Most women in pornography are poor and uneducated.
• 2.5 billion emails per day are pornographic.
• At least 20,000 American adults visit Internet sex sites at least 11 hours per week.
• The average age of first Internet exposure to pornography is 11 years old.
• The largest consumer of Internet pornography is the 12-17 age group.
• 47.78 percent of families said pornography is a problem in their home.
• 86% of rapists admit to using pornography.
• 57% of rapists admit to replicating porn scenes during rape.
• ~80% of child molestors admit to regular use of hard-core pornography.

• dozens of P actresses, male & female, have committed suicide
• 100% of the female actresses in P have been abused or taken advantage of, usually before they reach teen years
• ~90% of the actors/actresses abuse drugs and/or drink heavily
• "most" of the actors/actresses are carrying some type of STD and routinely take breaks to recover from their latest infection
• basic theme that everything the watcher sees is utterly fake -off camera/in their personal lives, the people are on the brink of insanity, personal life a complete wreck
• IT'S THE MONEY, and then the greed, that keeps people in
• underskilled, under-educated, no where to go, no where to turn, out of options, characterizes most of the players
• personal lives crammed with lies, stealing from 'clients', making false promises of marriage to infatuated 'clients', compounded by drug/alcohol abuse, scrape themselves together to go to 'work' and get more cash
• a general theme that the players "hate themselves and what they've become"
• for those trapped in the industry and the lifestyle, there are few alternatives, but some do manage to get out alive
• it takes years for people to fully recover

[TryingToChange]

Those statistics are staggering, aren't they? What's more staggering, though, I think, is reading the personal accounts of individuals who were in the industry. To read what they went through is absolutely mind-boggling. I can't imagine being where they are/were. I have never paid money for P, but every visit to a P website has supported the industry. I have been complicit in the crime and now I must stop.

Thanks for this post, this was an excellent reminder for me.

TTC

[jerseygirl]

Thanks for your post, Daniel. I think it can be helpful at times for a porn addict to confront the reality of the situation with some statistics. I think one of the biggest myths for a male porn addict is the woman he's watching is doing this because she must like it and 'looks' happy or she wouldn't be there in the first place.

Granted ... there are women that DO enjoy their jobs while propagating the sex industry ... but I think those type of models are the rarity in this prolific industry.

[Daniel]

JerseyGirl,

Yes. To face the carnage for what it really represents -the destruction of lives or at a minimum unspeakable suffering in trade for a momentary pleasure.

And facing it is hard to do.

When I was in full-effect P addiction I simply wouldn't believe it. It would be just anti-P propaganda.

But it's not unfortunately.

And Yes, she (the actress(s)) are doing this because they want to. Right?

I ran across a highly-regarded researcher who said plainly in a presentation that the sx industry, rather than representing 'choice' for women, in fact represents 'lack of choice', in that the women opt into the business because they feel they are out of options.

I suppose in theory there are a handful who genuinely like what they do.

But I would also propose if they were raised better, had better parents, received a better education, followed other interests, fill-in-the-blank, and ended up in a different but albiet much safer place in life -WELL, they would really rather have that instead of THIS.

It's very sobering.

Daniel

[Vorlan]

I've been doing some digging and have found a few old TTF posts on this:

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.

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).

Shocking really...it's hard to absorb the scale of the P problem...

Best wishes,

Ben

[Daniel]

It is chilling to read these cold hard facts.

Daniel

[artguy34]

It is chilling to read these cold hard facts.

This is down right depressing...

Just thought I would keep this fresh in my mind!

[hast]

Oh gosh. To think of all those people out there, struggling with an addiction to this stuff. Goodness I hope with all of my heart that they find a way out.
It almost makes me hopeless..and yet a little hopeful at the same time. Like I'm not even close to the only one stuggling with this, and I have so many people behind me hoping for the best.

[Alika]

Internet Pornography Statistics, accessed January, 2010

• Sex is the number one search topic on the Internet
• 372 million pornographic websites are currently available (in 2003 the number was 1.3 million)
• 100,000 websites offer illegal child pornography
• 2.5 billion e-mails per day are pornographic
• More than 100 million individuals accessed a pornographic website in 2008 (23 million in 2003)
  • 72% were men
  • 28% were women
• 70% of Internet pornography traffic occurs between 9 am and 5 pm
• The most common ways people accidentally reached pornographic content on the Web are pop-up windows (55%), misrepresented links (52%), misspelled URLs (48%) and auto links within e-mails (23%) (Fifty Percent of Workers Spend Nine Days a Year on Personal Surfing at Work)
• More than 70% of men from 18-34 visit pornographic sites in a typical month
• 48% of families said pornography is a problem in their home
• The Internet was a significant factor in 2 out of 3 divorces (Am. Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers in 2003)
• Average age of first Internet exposure to pornography is 8 years old
• Boys ages 12-17 are one of the largest consumers of pornography
  • Pornographers target them for that reason
  • 90% of them view on-line porn while doing their homework
• 1 in 25 youth who use the Internet have been sexually solicited where the solicitor tried to make contact offline (phone, mail or meeting in person)
• 29% of 7-17 year olds would freely give out home address
• 2 in 5 abductions of children ages 15-17 are due to Internet contact (San Diego Police Dept., 2005)
• Rape statistics are proportionately higher in those states with higher pornography sales and lower in those states with lower pornography sales
• 13,585 hard-core pornographic video/DVD titles were released in the United States, up from 1,300 titles in 1988
• Worldwide sex industry sales for 2006 are reported to be $97 billion, more revenue than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix, and Earthlink combined.
• Every second $3,076 is being spent on pornography
• Every second 28,250 Internet users are viewing pornography
• Every 39 minutes a new pornographic video is being created in the United States

Addiction —an unanticipated concern

Psychiatrically, "addiction" refers to the presence of:

• Tolerance which occurs when the same amount of a substance elicits less of a response
• Withdrawal symptoms
• Affective disturbances including:
  • Depression
  • Irritability
  • Impulsivity
  • Impaired concentration
  • Disrupted sleep
  • Aggressive behavior
• Interruption of social relationships

Criteria for an addiction to Internet pornography

Experts in addiction disorders describe five successive and interdependent stages through which individuals progress into an addiction to Internet pornography:

1. Discovery
2. Experimentation
3. Habit
4. Compulsivity
5. Hopelessness

The progression of these stages may be gradual or may occur rapidly after discovering pornographic websites.

Why has Internet pornography viewing become so popular?

• Accessibility
• Affordability
• Anonymity

What underpins the emergence of Internet pornography addiction?

• While it may appear that addictions are pleasure-seeking behaviors, the roots of any addiction can usually be traced to an effort to wish to suppress or avoid some kind of emotional pain
• Addiction is a way to escape from an experience that is either too full of sadness (such as an abusive relationship) or too devoid of joy (an emotionally empty life)
• Emotional trauma in early life may be at the root of some addictions
• Addiction to pornography offers a fantasy world in which there are endless people who appear to be interesting to – and interested in – the person
• By fantasizing, the person addicted to pornography is able to create idealized images of sexual partners whom he believes will meet his every impulsive need