According to a 2022 survey of online users in the United States, a significant percentage of men in different age groups reported watching pornography in the past month. Almost *** out of every ** respondents aged between 30 and 49 years stated they watched pornographic content in the past month. Among men aged 18 to 29 years, approximately ** percent of respondents reported watching online adult content in the past month.

According to a survey of online users conducted in January 2024 among audiences in Great Britain, almost *** in ** respondents aged between 25 and 49 years reported watching porn most days. In comparison, around ** percent of respondents aged between 18 and 24 reported watching porn content between one and three times per week. Around **** in ** respondents aged between 50 and 65 reported they did not watch porn, although they said they had accessed this type of content before.

Pornhub, which is owned by the Canadian entertainment conglomerate Aylo, saw over three billion visits to its website from users based in the United States in January 2024. Web visits from Indonesia ranked second, as almost 765 million visits from the country were registered to Pornhub in the examined period. Brazil followed, with around 503 million visits to the popular pornographic website. France users generated approximately 470 million visits to the website during the measured month.

Is porn consumed only by men? It seems that this stereotype is still partly true in 2021. In Europe, men are the main visitors of the porn website Pornhub. This can indicate that pornographic viewing remains an activity mostly done by men. However, female visitors of Pornhub in Spain and Poland accounted for 38 and 32 percent respectively of all visitors from their countries. Furthermore, more than a quarter of visitors were women in other European countries. In other words, women also appear to consume porn.

A gender-gap in frequency of porn consumption  

In 2014, French men were more frequently visiting pornographic sites than women. A quarter of responding men visited such websites at least once a week in France, whereas only three percent of women declared that they visited one in a week. For this reason, it could be discussed that even though women do consume porn, in terms of frequency men are the main consumers.

Porn consumption parallels the evolution of technology  

Long gone is the reign of magazines, videotapes and even DVDs. Nowadays, pornographic websites, like Pornhub, are leading the industry. With technology evolving, more and more people are visiting these websites on their mobile phones. In the Netherlands, such mobile phone use grew from 51 percent in 2015 to 62 percent in 2018. Similar findings were discovered in France . In spite of this, pornography remains a sensitive topic, at least in the U.S., where over half of Americans stated that porn was morally wrong.

This statistic displays the share of people sometimes watching porn in Flanders (Belgium) in 2017, by gender. In this year, approximately half of the respondents taking part in this survey answered to sometimes watch porn. Watching porn was more popular among male participants than among female participants. Of the female respondents, roughly ********** answered to sometimes watch porn.

11 to 12 years seemed to be the most common age among children to watch porn for the first time in Norway, as of 2020. ** percent of the surveyed respondents stated to have watched a pornographic film at that age, whereas ***** percent had not seen porn before they turned 16 years old.

The Adult and Pornographic Websites industry generates most of its revenue from subscription fees for premium access to pornography. However, a sizeable share of revenue also comes from the sale of display ads. Growth in mobile internet connectivity and shifting sexual attitudes have increased pornographic material consumption. The industry's shift towards mobile optimization has been crucial, with mobile now accounting for 70-80% of visits to adult sites. This adaptation to mobile has led to increased user engagement and more effective monetization strategies, including direct messaging and in-app purchases. As a result, industry revenue will climb at a CAGR of 8.1% to $1.3 billion, including 1.1% growth during 2025. However, profit across the industry is more limited than in the broader online sector since very few of the industry's viewers can be converted to paid subscribers and few large advertisers are willing to mingle their brands with adult content. The adult industry's dynamics have been reshaped by platforms like OnlyFans, which have redefined consumer spending patterns. OnlyFans positioned itself as a leader in personalized content delivery, seeing a remarkable 70% increase in transactional spending driven by its hybrid subscription model. As traditional pornographic giants struggled with regulatory strain—such as credit card companies ceasing transactions with Pornhub after allegations of illegal content hosting—subscription-based and direct-to-consumer options surged to prominence. Meanwhile, stringent regulations and age verification requirements have posed significant challenges, leading to a decline in traffic for some traditional platforms. The industry is poised to continue growing, though more subdued. Industry revenue will hike at a CAGR of 2.0% to $1.4 billion. As more US states implement age verification laws, platforms must invest heavily in sophisticated compliance systems, potentially influencing operational dynamics across the board. The growth of AI and VR is set to enhance user experience, promising more personalized and immersive content. Moreover, successfully adapting subscription and transactional models could diversify revenue streams and reduce dependence on advertising. Collaboration among industry leaders, legal entities, and tech companies could lead to unified age verification systems that balance compliance with user comfort.

According to a survey conducted in September 2022 among teenagers in the United States, ** percent of the respondents that reported purposely watching pornography online did so on porn websites. Around ** percent of respondents reported watching adult content and pornography on social media, while regular video sites and platforms were indicated by ** percent of U.S. teens.

It became more common for children to watch porn in 2020, compared to 2018. Nearly one out of two kids had seen a pornographic movie as of 2020.

Digital technologies have changed French people's love and sexual lives. According to a survey of French users conducted in May 2022, 15 percent of respondents reported watching pornographic content on the internet, while 32 percent reported having watched porn online before, but not regularly. However, almost half of respondents were not interested in watching pornography online at all. Engaging in sexting with a partner (the exchange of sexual or sexually suggestive text or instant-chat messages) was common practice for less than one in 10 respondents as of the examined period, while over five in 10 respondents reported having never engaged in the practice and not having interest in doing so in the future.

In 2023, 27 percent of men aged between 16 and 29 said that pornography is useful for sex education. More than 48 percent of women in the same age group said that pornography promotes misinformation and complicates sex education.

With the most popular pornographic site visited by French millennials in 2020 being Youporn.fr, the source wanted to assess the frequency to which French men attracted to other men were watching porn, compared to heterosexual men. Thus, 13 percent of homosexual, bisexual or "curious" heterosexuals were watching porn almost every day, compared to only two percent of heterosexual men.

IntroductionThere is extensive awareness of internet pornography addiction. It not only affects the mental health of adolescents but also promotes criminal activity. However, the impact of internet pornography addiction on functional in the brain remains unclear.Methods16 healthy college students and five college students with severe internet pornography addiction were invited to participate in the experiment and watch a pornographic video. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure the dynamic changes in hemoglobin in the brain during a 10 min session of viewing internet pornography. Participants completed the Stroop Color and Word Task (SCWT) before and after they had watched the video. Facial expressions and life signs were measured continuously during the experiment.ResultsCompared with the group that frequently viewed pornographic videos, the group with low-frequency pornography viewing exhibited enhanced functional connectivity in the inferior prefrontal cortex and pars triangularis of Broca’s area in the frontal lobe, the primary somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobe, and the pre-motor and supplementary motor cortices. Moreover, the high-frequency pornography-viewing group exhibited hyperactive parasympathetic activity, more pronounced sexual arousal, and stronger functional connectivity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and frontopolar area. After viewing the pornography, the high-frequency group demonstrated longer reaction times and significantly reduced accuracy while completing the Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT) compared to the low-frequency group and also their own performance before and after viewing the pornography.DiscussionThis study demonstrated the hyperactive and inhibited brain areas under the impact of pornography video addiction. The results may strengthen our understanding of neurobiology and facilitate the development of prevention policies for adolescents.

With the most popular pornographic site visited by French millennials in 2020 being Youporn.fr, the source wanted to assess the frequency to which French men attracted to other men were watching porn. Thus, ** percent of homosexual, bisexual or "curious" heterosexuals were watching porn almost every day, compared to only *** percent of heterosexual men. Compared to these results, most of heterosexual men (** percent) watched porn more than a year ago

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is underreported in India like other sexual crimes. In the statistics published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the distribution of image-based abuse content is clubbed with the distribution of pornography. This method of sorting and logging offences makes it hard to discern incidents of image-based abuse from consensual pornography. Thus, NCRB statistics about the incidence of IBSA are not conclusive. This random sample of about 50 news reports of IBSA incidents that occurred in different parts of the country since 2013 shows that the most frequent impact on victims is suicide or attempted suicide. It also shines a light on the actions of perpetrators that tend to occur in conjunction with the non-consensual capture, creation, publishing or distribution of nude, partially nude or sexually explicit images and videos.

Rohini Lakshané created this document in June 2024 as a part of a series of articles on IBSA for FactorDaily .

The first article in the series, which references this dataset, is published here: The crying shame of image-based abuse

This document contains a random sample that is meant to be indicative, not exhaustive.

The sample was created from top search results on Google News with the country setting restricted to India.

Search strings: revenge porn, morphed nudes, leaked nudes, leaked nude videos, leaked videos OYO hotel

The contents of Column E (Actions of perpetrators in addition to non-consensual shooting and/ or distribution), Column F (Impact on victims) and Column G (Additional notes/ observations) are noted solely on the basis of the contents of the news reports.

In addition, this spreadsheet contains 8 incidents/ cases that were high-profile, that is, they received much public and media attention, and 4 reports that the researcher considers noteworthy.

This dataset avoids the use of the word "blackmail" because of its racist connotations. The words "extortion" and "intimidation" are used instead.

Data is provided AS-IS, without warranty as to accuracy or completeness.

(Please download and use the latest version of this record, not the prior ones.)

IntroductionProblematic online video pornography consumption is associated with sexual objectification, particularly in male consumers. However, previous studies have not considered that there is a subgroup of internet users whose consumption may become problematic due to their internet sex addiction. Such users may, in response to internet sex addiction symptoms such as craving, have increased levels of sexual objectification.MethodsIn a sample of 1,272 male consumers of online video pornography (Mage = 32.93, SDage = 9.44), we examined whether internet sex addiction is linked to sexual objectification via an online survey.ResultsWe fitted a series of structural equation models and found that men who scored higher on internet sex addiction were more likely to objectify women. More importantly, this link did not cease when controlling for the frequency of online video pornography consumption.DiscussionOur findings suggest that there are other mechanisms related to addictive symptomatology than just the link through online video pornography consumption that may contribute to sexual objectification. Addiction-related factors may have a unique role in fostering sexual objectification. Isolating internet sex addiction as a potential driver highlights the need to address objectifying behaviours in individuals struggling with this addiction.

Sexual response occurs when sexual excitatory factors outweigh inhibitory factors. Problems with sexual arousal may come at play when sexual excitation is too low and/or inhibitory influences such as feelings of disgust are too strong. To explore interventions that may help overcome decreased sexual responding, this study examined if sexual responding can be amplified by instructions to up-regulate sexual arousal and/or down-regulate disgust. Women with no sexual difficulties (N = 255; µage = 20.55; SD = 2.23) were randomly assigned to a sexual arousal up-regulation, disgust down-regulation, or passive control condition. Participants were instructed to use the assigned regulation strategy while viewing pornography. To prevent floor effects due to low disgust responsivity in a non-clinical sample, half of the participants were presented with a prime that was designed to make the contaminating properties of sex more salient. Instruction to up-regulate sexual arousal successfully enhanced feelings of sexual arousal in the unprimed group, yet the increase in sexual arousal was not paralleled by reductions in feelings of disgust. Instruction to down-regulate disgust successfully decreased disgust. However, this decrease was not paralleled by increases in sexual arousal. Overall, findings indicate that emotion regulation techniques could facilitate affective control in sexual contexts.

As of December 2022, 21 percent of young male teenagers and young adults in England reported watching pornography every day or more often. By comparison, only seven percent of female teens and young adults reported watching pornographic content with the same frequency. Among young women aged between 16 and 21, 34 percent reported not having watched pornographic content at all, while 24 percent reported watching this type of content between two and six times per week.

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Adult Entertainment Market Size 2025-2029

The adult entertainment market size is forecast to increase by USD 29.3 billion at a CAGR of 8.8% between 2024 and 2029.

The market is experiencing significant growth driven by the increasing acceptance and normalization of sexual health and wellness, leading to a in demand for adult products, particularly sex toys. This trend is further fueled by the expanding consumer base, including millennials and Gen Z, who are more open-minded and technologically savvy, driving the shift towards online sales channels. However, the market faces challenges from stringent regulatory policies regarding adult entertainment product material, which vary significantly across regions, necessitating careful navigation to ensure compliance.
Companies seeking to capitalize on market opportunities must prioritize innovation, focusing on developing body-safe, high-quality, and discreet products. Additionally, strategic partnerships and collaborations with healthcare professionals and sexual health advocacy groups can help bolster brand reputation and credibility. Overall, the market presents a lucrative opportunity for businesses that can navigate regulatory complexities and cater to evolving consumer preferences.

What will be the Size of the Adult Entertainment Market during the forecast period?

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The market encompasses a vast and dynamic economic sector, generating significant revenue through various content distribution channels and platforms. This industry, which includes adult films, periodicals, websites, and social media, is estimated to be a multi-billion-dollar global market. Digital technologies have revolutionized the industry, enabling the proliferation of streaming platforms and subscription-based services such as OnlyFans and ManyVids. Despite its economic importance, the market remains subject to various social issues and regulatory challenges. Cultural standards, worker rights, and ethical concerns continue to shape the industry's evolution. Regulation and legal issues surrounding exploitation, distribution laws, and consumer protection are ongoing challenges.
Pirated content and production laws also pose significant threats to market participants. Social media and the internet have further complicated the landscape, with many adults consuming adult content on these platforms. The rise of ethical concerns, such as control over work, body standards, and income, has become increasingly important. The industry's future direction will depend on how it navigates these complex issues while adhering to evolving cultural norms and regulatory requirements.

How is this Adult Entertainment Industry segmented?

The adult entertainment industry research report provides comprehensive data (region-wise segment analysis), with forecasts and estimates in 'USD billion' for the period 2025-2029, as well as historical data from 2019-2023 for the following segments.

Distribution Channel

  Offline
  Online


Gender

  Female
  Male
  Non-Binary


Type

  Adult Videos/Movies
  Adult Games
  Live Performances
  Magazines and Books
  Sex Toys and Accessories
  Virtual Reality (VR) Content


Age Group

  18-24
  25-34
  35-44
  45+


Geography

  North America

    US
    Canada


  APAC

    China
    India
    Japan


  Europe

    France
    Germany
    Italy
    UK


  South America

    Argentina
    Brazil


  Middle East and Africa

    Egypt
    KSA
    Oman
    UAE


  Rest of World (ROW)

By Distribution Channel Insights

The offline segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period. The market encompasses various sectors, including user-generated content, pirated content, and professional production. Piracy and copyright infringement pose significant challenges, with pirated content proliferating on digital platforms. Legal issues surrounding pornography, consent, and cultural standards continue to shape the market. Branding, customization, and personalization are crucial marketing strategies for businesses in this industry. Payment processing and eCommerce have become essential components, with platforms like OnlyFans and ManyVids offering monetization opportunities. Social media and streaming platforms have expanded the market's reach, enabling new audience segments. Regulation, distribution laws, and production laws are key considerations for businesses. Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and digital technologies are transforming the industry, offering innovative experiences.

Ethical issues, worker rights, and consumer protection are essential social issues. The market's economic significance is substantial, with a global reach and cross-cultural appeal. The sex tech industry generates income through various channels, including digital advertisements, financial services, and collaborations. Social attitudes towards adult content conti

Getting sexually aroused was the most common reason to watch porn for Danes, according to a survey from 2018. However, men were more inclined to watch porn than women if their partner wanted less sex than they did. In similar vein, nearly one in three of Danish men watching porn did not want to inform their partner, while only 16 percent of the women stated the same.