This article contains affiliate links. Fight the New Drug may receive financial support from purchases made using affiliate links.
Trigger warning:
It’s a sad fact that internet porn is more varied than just about anything else you can find online.
The infamous Rule 34 of the internet—a comical list of protocols and conventions which first appeared years ago on a popular online forum—states, “If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions.”
And as varied as porn is, there is also a huge variety of how porn can be accessed, consumed, downloaded, etc. by anyone of any age from around the world. All you need is an internet signal and device with a screen to consume the most sexually explicit and harmful content available.
As an awareness organization that’s dedicated to educating on the proven harmful effects of porn using only science, facts, and personal accounts, it’s vital that we understand the porn industry as it is and stay up-to-date on what consumers are watching and how they’re accessing it. If knowledge is power, then the more we understand about the current state of the porn industry and consumers the better we can know how to raise awareness and educate consumers about the risks they’re taking when they log on.
Related: How Many People Are On Porn Sites Right Now? (Hint: It’s A Lot.)
Especially for parents, it’s vital to know how kids—and their friends—are accessing porn and what they’re watching, so they can be best equipped to address the issue.
And for everyone else, it’s important to know how this content is being delivered to consumers so we can best spark dialogue while knowing all the facts.
Who’s watching what porn with what device?
It’s infamously difficult to get stats and numbers that detail a behind-the-scenes view of the porn industry and its consumers, so the best place we have to see the state of business is from porn sites reporting their own stats. Are these numbers to be trusted? Frankly, we’re not convinced they can be, so we take this data with a grain of salt while also recognizing that porn truly is one of the biggest issues our generation is facing.
Related: 20 Must-Know Stats About The Porn Industry And Its Underage Consumers
To understand how the industry is reaching consumers and what programs and devices the average consumer uses to access the free, most hardcore content on the internet, let’s dive into the stats shared in Pornhub’s 2020 tech review report. With reportedly over 42 billion site visits reported for 2019, it’s one of the world’s most popular porn sites.
To start off, check out the Apple versus Android access these video categories.
Over the last several years, according to their data, phones, and tablets have become the most popular way to access the massive porn site.
In 2020, mobile devices made up 84% of all Pornhub’s traffic worldwide. 80% of that was from smartphones, which saw their share grow by +4.7%. Tablet traffic was reduced another –29% in 2020, while desktop and laptop traffic was reduced to just 15% of Pornhub’s global traffic.
Mobile devices rule the industry
And moving onto the next group of stats, let’s see which of Pornhub’s top 20 countries uses mobile devices the most. Some countries have even larger shares of mobile traffic including the United States, where 87% of visits are from phones or tablets. 95% of traffic from the Philippines is from mobile, and 92% in Mexico. Russia saw smartphone usage increase +10 percentage points in 2020 and Ukraine increased its share by +11 points.
There are however some exceptions. While Germany saw a 7% increase in smartphone market share, it still lags behind other top five countries with 26% of visitors still using desktop computers.
Okay, so mobile devices rule the internet, and the fact that they seem to be ruling porn sites as well is not surprising.
But what operating systems are consumers using to access this porn site?
In a surprising trend, Apple Pornhub access decreased while Android access jumped ahead.
But regardless of your preferred OS, these stats are very telling. Technology has changed not only the content of porn, but also how, when, and at what age it’s consumed. Young people are all presented with the issue of today’s porn, and studies show that most young people are exposed to porn by age 13,British Board of Film Classification. (2020). Young people, pornography & age-verification. BBFC. Retrieved from https://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-classification/researchCopy and according to a nationally representative survey of U.S. teens, 84.4% of 14 to 18-year-old males and 57% of 14 to 18-year-old females have viewed pornography.Wright, P. J., Paul, B., & Herbenick, D. (2021). Preliminary insights from a U.S. probability sample on adolescents’ pornography exposure, media psychology, and sexual aggression. J.Health Commun., 1-8. doi:10.1080/10810730.2021.1887980Copy
That’s a lot of underage exposure to an industry that claims to be “adult” entertainment, and many are watching it on devices they have with them 24 hours a day on their person.
Long story short, out of over 42 billion visits to the world’s most popular porn site, the average viewer watches porn on an Android phone or a Windows desktop, both using Google Chrome.
And now, in case you didn’t know, but porn is also accessible through gaming consoles as well. Check out what interfaces consumers are using to log onto Pornhub from their 2019 annual review:
The argument that porn is nothing new—that it’s been around forever and never caused any great harm—is very outdated when you think about how different today’s porn is from anything that existed before.
The Playboy generation is now raising the Pornhub and OnlyFans generation, and it’s a completely different upbringing.
Related: 10 Top Facts And Stats From A Study Of Over 10,000 Porn Performers
Porn is incomparably more accessible, more normalized, and more extreme than anything that existed even a generation ago. Those centerfold magazines that were passed around among youth in previous generations were nothing compared to what youth have access to today, and the negative impacts of watching porn go far beyond young people hoping their parents don’t find out.
What did we learn?
It’s all too clear that porn is more accessible, more common, and more mainstream than ever before, and there’s no real end in sight.
But fortunately for us, information about the harmful effects of porn has also never been more accessible or mainstream than ever before.
Related: What Causes People To Choose To Go Into The Porn Industry?
So while people are logging on to Pornhub and adding daily to their massive stats and using various operating systems and devices, we’ll continue sharing the facts and raising awareness that porn is anything but harmless entertainment. And judging by the hundreds of thousands of messages we’ve received over the years, and the millions of social followers we have, this movement for real love has already made a huge impact in changing the conversation around this issue.
Need help?
For those reading this who feel they are struggling with pornography, you are not alone. Check out Fortify, a science-based recovery platform dedicated to helping you find lasting freedom from pornography. Fortify now offers a free experience for both teens and adults. Connect with others, learn about your unwanted porn habit, and track your recovery journey. There is hope—sign up today.
Fight the New Drug may receive financial support from purchases made using affiliate links.
