Recent Statistics on Internet Dangers

CYBERPORN

• According to comScore Media Metrix, 71.9 million people visited adult sites in August 2005, reaching 42.7 percent of the Internet audience.
• According to comScore Media Metrix, Internet users viewed over 15 billion pages of adult content in August 2005.
• According to comScore Media Metrix, Internet users spent an average of 14.6 minutes per day viewing adult content online.
• There are 1.3 million porn websites (N2H2, 9/23/03).
• More than 32 million unique individuals visited a porn site in Sept. of 2003. Nearly 22.8 million of them were male (71 percent), while 9.4 million adult site visitors were female (29 percent)
  (Nielsen/Net Ratings, Sept. 2003).
• Pornographic web pages now top 260 million and growing at an unprecedented rate (N2H2, 9/23/03).
• N2H2's database contained 14 million identified pages of pornography in 1998, so the growth to 260 million represents an almost 20-fold increase in just five years (N2H2, 9/23/03).
• The cybersex industry generates approximately $1 billion annually and is expected to grow to $5-7 billion over the next 5 years, barring unforeseen change (National Research Council Report, 2002).
• The total porn industry - estimates from $4 billion to $10 billion (National Research Council Report, 2002).
• The two largest individual buyers of bandwidth are U.S. firms in the adult online industry (National Research Council Report, 3-1, 2002).
• 40,000 expired domain names were porn-napped
  (National Research Council).
• Commercial pornography sites:
  
  • 74 percent display free teaser porn images on the homepage, often porn banner ads.
  • 66 percent did not include a warning of adult content.
  • 11 percent included such a warning but did not have sexually explicit content on the homepage.
  • 25 percent prevented users from exiting the site (mousetrapping).
  • Only 3 percent required adult verification.
    (Child-Proofing on the World Wide Web: A Survey of Adult Webservers, 2001, Jurimetrics. National Research Council Report, 2002).

CHILD PORN

• According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), child pornography reports increased 39% in 2004. Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC, states that the statistics show a significant and steady increase in child pornography reports for the seventh year.
• More than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the Internet every week (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 10/8/03).
• 140,000 child pornography images were posted to the Internet according to researchers who monitored the Internet over six weeks. Twenty children were estimated to have been abused for the first time and more than 1,000 images of each child created (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 10/8/03).
• More than half of all illegal sites reported to the Internet Watch Foundation are hosted in the United States. Illegal sites in Russia have more than doubled from 286 to 706 in 2002 (National Criminal Intelligence Service, 8/21/03).
• Demand for pornographic images of babies and toddlers on the Internet is soaring (Prof. Max Taylor, Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe, March 2003).
• More babies and toddlers are appearing on the net and the abuse is getting worse. It is more torturous and sadistic than it was before. The typical age of children is between six and 12, but the profile is getting younger (Prof. Max Taylor, Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe, March 2003).
• Approximately 20 new children appear on the porn sites every month - many kidnapped or sold into sex (Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe, March 2003).
• In the last couple of years, we've just seen such young children on regular seizures - babies, 2-, 3-, 4-year-olds (Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie, Toronto Police Force).
• The U.S. Customs Service estimates that there are more than 100,000 Web sites offering child pornography - which is illegal worldwide. Revenue estimates for the industry range from about $200 million to more than $1 billion per year. These unlawful sexual images can be purchased as easily as shopping at Amazon.com. "Subscribers" typically use credit cards to pay a monthly fee of between $30 and $50 to download photos and videos, or a one-time fee of a few dollars for single images. (Red Herring Magazine, 1/18/02)

MOBILE PORN

• 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")
• 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")

ONLINE SEXUAL PREDATORS

• Internet pedophiles are increasingly adopting counter-intelligence techniques to protect themselves from being traced (National Criminal Intelligence Service, 8/21/03).
• Forty percent of people charged with child pornography also sexually abuse children, police say. But finding the predators and identifying the victims are daunting tasks (Reuters, 2003).
• One in five children who use computer chatrooms has been approached over the Internet by pedophiles. (Detective Chief Superintendent Keith Akerman, Telegraph.co.uk January 2002 )
• 89% of sexual solicitations were made in either chat rooms or Instant Messages. (Pew Study reported in JAMA, 2001)
• 13 million youth use Instant Messaging. (Pew Study reported in JAMA, 6/01)
• 1 in 5 received sexual solicitation or approach in last year. (Online Victimization, NCMEC, June 2000)
• 1 in 33 received AGGRESSIVE sexual solicitation (asked to meet, called them via phone, sent mail, money or gifts). Online Victimization, NCMEC, June 2000)
• 25% of youth who received sexual solicitation told a parent. (Online Victimization, NCMEC, June 2000)
• 1 in 4 kids participate in Real Time Chat. (FamilyPC Survey, 2000)

YOUTH

• 23% of parents have rules about what their kids can do on the computer (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Study, March 2005).
• 25% of 7th- to 12th-graders with a computer at home say it has a filter or parental controls on it (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Study, March 2005).
• 31% of 7th- to 12th-graders pretended to be older to get onto a website (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Study, March 2005).
• Nearly all young people have used a computer (98%) and gone online (96%) (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Study, March 2005).
• In a typical day, just over half (54%) of all young people use a computer for recreation (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Study, March 2005).
• Nearly one-third (31%) of 8- to 18-year-olds have a computer in their bedroom, and one in five (20%) have an Internet connection there (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Study, March 2005).
• About half of young people (48%) go online from home, 20% from school, and 16% from someplace else (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Study, March 2005).
• Among the 96% of young people who have ever gone online, 65% say they go online most often from home, 14% from school, 7% from a friend’s house, and 2% from a library or other location (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Study, March 2005).
• One in ten young people (13%) reports having a handheld device that connects to the Internet (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Study, March 2005).
• The most common recreational activities young people engage in on the computer are playing games and communicating through instant messaging (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Study, March 2005).
• The Kaiser Family Foundation found that among teens online, 70 percent have accidentally come across pornography on the Web (Kaiser Family Foundation).
• A study by the NOP Research Group found that of the four million children aged seven to 17 who surf the net, 29% percent would freely give out their home address and 14% would freely give out their e-mail address if asked. (Telegraph.co.uk January 2002)
  
  
• Nine out of 10 children aged between eight and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet. In most cases, the sex sites were accessed unintentionally when a child, often in the process of doing homework, used a seemingly innocent sounding word to search for information or pictures. (London School of Economics January 2002)
• The Kaiser Family Foundation's study on teens' use of the Internet for health information has some shocking findings:
  
  Pornography and Internet Filtering Among all 15-24 year-olds:
  
  • Two-thirds (67%) support the law requiring Internet filters at schools and libraries.
  • Two out of three (65%) say being exposed to online pornography could have a serious impact on those under 18.
  • A majority (59%) think seeing pornography on the Internet encourages young people to have sex before they're ready.
  
  Among the 95% of all 15-17 year-olds who have ever gone online:
  
  • Seventy percent have accidentally stumbled across pornography online, 23% "very" or "somewhat" often.
  • A majority (55%) of those who were exposed to pornography say they were "not too" or "not at all" upset by it, while 45% were "very" or "somewhat" upset.
  • A third (33%) of those with home Internet access have a filtering technology in place there. Among the 76% of all 15-17 year-olds who have sought health information online:
  • Nearly half (46%) say they have been blocked from non-pornographic sites by filtering technology.
  The entire study is online at http://www.kff.org/content/2001/20011211a/GenerationRx.pdf
  (The Kaiser Family Foundation, 2001)

ADULTS

• Cyber-sex is the crack cocaine of sexual addiction. (Dr. Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute, Washington Times 1/26/2000)
• Cyber-sex reinforces and normalizes sexual disorders. (Dr. Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute, Washington Times 1/26/2000)
• Cyber-sex is a public health hazard exploding because very few are recognizing it as such or taking it seriously. (MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study; Associated Press Online, 2/29/2000)
• 57 million Americans have Internet access. (MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study, 2000)
• 25 million Americans visit cyber-sex sites between 1-10 hours per week. Another 4.7 million in excess of 11 hours per week. (MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study, Washington Times, 1/26/2000)
• At least 200,000 Internet users are hooked on porn sites, X-rated chat rooms or other sexual materials online. (MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study, Associated Press Online, 2/29/2000)
• MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study, 2000
  • Men prefer visual erotica twice as much as women
  • Women favor chat rooms twice as much as men
  • Women had slightly lower rate of sexually compulsive Internet behavior
  • 70% keep their habit a secret

CHRISTIANS AND SEXUAL BROKENNESS

• One out of every six women, including Christians, struggles with an addiction to pornography. That's 17 percent of the population, which, according to a survey by research organization Zogby International, is the number of women who truly believe they can find sexual fulfillment on the Internet (Today's Christian Woman, September/October 2003).
• " ' More than 80 percent of women who have this addiction take it offline,' " says Marnie Ferree. " 'Women, far more than men, are likely to act out their behaviors in real life, such as having multiple partners, casual sex, or affairs' " (Today's Christian Woman, September/October 2003).
• 51% of pastors say cyberporn is a possible temptation. 37% say it is a current struggle (Christianity Today, Leadership Survey, December 2001). 4 in 10 pastors have visited a porn site (Christianity Today, Leadership Survey, December 2001).

PUBLIC OPINION

• Eight out of ten Americans (81%) believe federal laws against Internet obscenity should be vigorously enforced, and seven out of ten (70%) believe that strongly. A higher percentage of women support vigorous enforcement of federal laws against Internet obscenity than men -- 90% versus 72% (Wirthlin Survey, 2002).
• On the other hand, seven out of ten Americans (70%) say they do not believe these laws are currently being vigorously enforced (Wirthlin Survey, 2002).

MISCELLANEOUS

• An estimated 204.3 million people, or 74.9 percent of the U.S. population above the age of two and living in households equipped with a fixed-line phone, have Internet access (Nielson Media Research).
• 57% of U.S. Internet users incorrectly believe that when a website has a privacy policy, it protects their personal information from being shared with other sites or companies (Annenberg Center).
• Although no connection between legal porn viewing and criminal behavior has ever been proven, police have seen a steady increase in porn associated with crimes (Lt. Matt Bilodeau, spokesman for the Cache County Sheriff's Department, Associated Press, 10/17/04).
• The adult-film industry is bigger than ever, making some
  6,000 movies a year and grossing more than $4 billion - roughly as much as the National Football League (New York Post, Russell Scott Smith, 9/25/03).

© 2001 by Donna Rice Hughes. Request permission if you wish to reprint or post.