In another thread, I wondered what percentage of Internet traffic was porn. So I did some digging. Answer: about 10%, down from 20% a decade ago.
What dethroned porn? Social networking sites.
Researchers recently determined that "social networking has dethroned pornography as the hottest attraction on the Web," and that "in a study of the full Internet -- some 155 million Web pages -- between 2006 and 2007, Optenet found that pornographic sites had dropped by nearly 9 percent in the space of a year."
However, lest we leap to the conclusion that we've all put our pants back on, "porn still accounts for the largest number of Websites, registering more than 36 percent of the Web in 2007. Shopping sites, finished at No. 2 with 11 percent, followed by advertising and travel, which accounted for about 7 percent each."
I conclude this drop is, in part, due to the better smut filters in the workplace, as I've read several times before that most porn surfing happens during business hours.
I wonder if the porn statistics will rise again, the next time the study is done, now that so many people have lost their jobs?
The study goes on to say that some objectionable sites have had huge increases over the last 10 years: "some of the fastest-growing categories of Websites are anonymizers, which multiplied by about 219 percent between 2006 and 2007; hacker sites (88 percent); and malicious code (70 percent).
Other categories showing alarming growth included sites promoting violence (126 percent); racism (71 percent); and drugs (62 percent). The fastest growing category was sites promoting anorexia and bulimia, which grew 469 percent between 2006 and 2007."
Promoting anorexia and bulimia????
Best source article about this study:
Research: Porn Is Losing Its Steam - Security/Management - DarkReading