Updated: 12/1/2005 12:15:37 PM Posted: 12/1/2005 8:58:36 AM
Internet porn is a $2.5 billion a year business in America. The largest and continually growing business on the web is a driving force behind a growing epidemic of sex addiction.
Pornography is compared to crack cocaine in its addictive behavior. Addicts viewing online porn will develop a compulsive behavior or routine where retrieving updates or other web searches happen daily. One out of every five people addicted to the internet is hooked on porn.
Dr. Elizabeth Englander teaches at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts. She says, "All kinds of deviant behavior pops up a little bit more on the internet because people feel as though what they do online doesn't count".
She says that the internet can make a bad addiction worse. "Anything that makes people feel anonymous makes them more likely to act impulsively or to act on things that are deviant or they otherwise wouldn't do." Dr Englander also says, "They may find that they need to do more and more to get the same feeling".
"Douglas" was caught in this cycle and it ruined his life. "There's really a hangover that goes with this, the next day we're dead physically, tired, we're emotionally tired, we're spiritually dead and life doesn't seem so great". He goes on, saying "I don't really want to know how much money I've spent, but it's in the tens of thousands of dollars".
Families can also be devastated.
"Lisa" remembers finding out about her husband's secret obsession. "I'll never forget the day that I saw the activity was going on. I was pregnant. My jaw dropped to the ground."
Here are some clues if someone is becoming addicted to cybersex: - Hiding online activity from family members - Spending excessive time on the computer - Preferring cyber relations to human contact - Losing interest in other activities
"Douglas" says this is a tough cycle to break. "Detoxing from this disease is very painful". Although men like "Douglas" make up the majority of those addicted to internet sex, women are involved too. Research shows that men prefer sites with graphic images while women gravitate towards erotic chat.
Pornography Industry Revenue Statistics
Porn revenue is larger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises.
US porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC (6.2 billion)
Child pornography generates $3 billion annually
Internet Pornography Statistics
- Pornographic websites - 4.2 million (12% of total websites)
- Pornographic pages - 372 million
- Daily pornographic search engine requests - 68 million (25% of total search engine requests)
- Daily pornographic emails - 2.5 billion (8% of total emails)
- Average daily pornographic emails/user - 4.5 per Internet user
- Monthly Pornographic downloads (Peer-to-peer) - 1.5 billion (35% of all downloads)
- Daily Gnutella "child pornography" requests - 116,000
- Websites offering illegal child pornography 100,000
- Sexual solicitations of youth made in chat rooms - 89%
- Youths who received sexual solicitation - 20%
- Worldwide visitors to pornographic web sites - 72 million annually
Children Internet Pornography Statistics
- Average age of first Internet exposure to pornography - 11 years old
- Largest consumer of Internet pornography - 12-17 age group
- 15-17 year olds having multiple hard-core exposures - 80%
- 8-16 year olds having viewed porn online - 90% (most while doing homework)
- 7-17 year olds who would freely give out home address - 29%
- 7-17 year olds who would freely give out email address - 14%
- Childrens' character names linked to thousands of porn links - 26 (Including Pokeman and Action Man)
- Men admitting to accessing pornography at work - 20%
- US adults who regularly visit Internet pornography websites - 40 million
- Promise Keeper men who viewed pornography in last week - 53%
- Christians who said pornography is a major problem in the home - 47%
- Adults admitting to Internet sexual addiction - 10%
- Breakdown of male/female visitors to pornography sites - 72% male / 28% female
Adult Internet Pornography Statistics
Women and Pornography
- 70% of women keep their cyber activities secret.
- 17% of all women struggle with pornography addiction.
- Women, far more than men, are likely to act out their behaviors in real life, such as having multiple partners, casual sex, or affairs.
- Women favor chat rooms 2X more than men.
- 1 of 3 visitors to all adult web sites are women.
- 9.4 million women access adult web sites each month.
- Women admitting to accessing pornography at work 13%
