By David S. Prescott, LICSW, & Kieran McCartan, PhD
Not many
professionals are aware that the world’s largest adult pornography site,
Pornhub, publishes annual statistics
about its use and users. Obviously, readers will want to be judicious in how
they read the report (in the language of porn, the website itself is NSFW or
“not suitable for work”), although the findings themselves are presented in a
provocative but not necessarily offensive manner. Each reader’s opinions will
vary.
What have we
learned about Pornhub this year? Once again, the numbers are vast: In 2019
alone, there were 42 billion visits to the site (averaging 115 million per
day), 39 billion searches performed, and 6.83 million uploads. For just the
videos uploaded in 2019, if one were to watch them all in sequence, beginning
in 1850, they would still be watching today. Reading such statistics as “6597
petabytes of data transferred” is a little bit like trying to come to terms
with the national debts of nations; it can be nearly impossible to comprehend.
Beyond this, the
statistics track, to the best of their abilities, who the most popular stars
are, what people search for, what they actually watch, for how long, and where.
They also report on the age and gender of their viewers, leading to questions
of how they are able to divine this information (and is there a bias in the
direction of attracting advertisers). Nonetheless, the data is remarkable.
Digging a little
deeper, however, it seems that there is much we can learn about sex and
sexuality that can inform our understanding of clients in assessment and
treatment situations. First, of course, is obvious: Porn is ubiquitous.
Even the best available research does not show it to be a risk factor for
re-offense, as this earlier
blog describes. Pornography continues to be controversial,
with some politicians declaring it a public health crisis despite the
most recent scientific findings. To our minds, the most interesting and
concerning questions have to do with the effects of pornography on children, adolescents,
and other vulnerable people. The reality is that porn without context, as ill-informed
sexual education, lays problematic, difficult and unrealistic notions of sex
and sexuality; as indicated in a recent BBC
poll suggesting that women’s exposure to violent sex and violence during
sex is on the increase. Hence, we need sex education, informed debate and
realistic relationship expectations in modern society.
Questions arise:
These findings show that what people search for is not necessarily what they
end up watching. Further, as the authors of the report note, there is a trend
in the direction of real people and not simply actors. “Amateur” was amongst
the most frequent search terms, leading to questions about to what extent
viewers are looking for the most authentic or genuine experience (as opposed to
the gymnastics of many of the more commercially produced videos). At the same
time, however, animated pornography is also at the top of the list, speaking to
the role of novelty and fantasy for many viewers. These trends raise questions
for how we understand our clients in treatment as well as those on other
problematic pathways. As the Internet
Watch Foundation points out child sexual abuse material, and related
content, is often viewed on Facebook, Twitter, and other legally accessible
internet sites, not purely on the dark web. Most of this accessible material is
homemade, not “produced” which is in line with trends in mainstream porn.
Many more
questions follow regarding what people watch. There is plenty to be offended by
and concerned by. The prevalence of incest themes (mothers, fathers, stepmothers,
stepsisters, “Daddy” etc.) can and should raise any number of questions for
those understanding the sexuality of clients in treatment. On one hand, many
professionals working with adolescents who have sexually abused report seeing
cases in which these themes were used in the service of abusing within
families. On the other hand, one wonders about the underlying allure of the
relational aspects. As repulsive as incest is to society, do these videos also,
however strange it may seem, provide a sense of connection to viewers? What is
clear is that, as we have argued in the past, viewing porn through the lens of
our own
individual sense of morality is not a tenable approach to understanding or
treating people who have abused.
In the end, the
statistics provide more questions than answers. What do we really know about
the sexual interests of viewers? 32% of visitors were female, indicating that
it’s not as simple as men wanting to look at naked women. What will be the
long-term effects on young people who grow up porn-educated and without funding
for meaningful sex education in schools? And ultimately, what are people really
looking for when they enter the search terms that they do?
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