I have seen so many articles of late stating the danger of on-line porn addiction. The quality of these articles are somewhat dubious and the statistics included are at best misleading, yet the general consensus is that people (men, women and teenagers) are concerned with their compulsion to view on-line sex tapes, films or whatever the search engine throws up. The question is whether more people are watching porn and why? If we take the premise that availability encourages increased use then the surge in porn use would be true. Online porn sites are both accessible to anyone with Internet access and a quiet corner to peruse without getting caught. This could be true of all adult related industries in that more people are buying sex toys because of the increase in sex shops online. But is this true? Before the dawn of Internet use did people use sex shops in back streets and collect VHS tapes and dirty mags? Its certainly true that the teenage boys in one article last week were only swapping a stack of wank mags under the bed for you porn or such like. The bigger lure for folks is really the ease of access and the fact that lots of quality porn material is actually free nowadays. I think its a question of availability rather than quantity that attracts a bigger audience to porn.

Of course watching porn doesn’t necessarily lead to addiction, just as using sex toys doesn’t mean you won’t see daylight for months on end. Porn is used in many ways and it doesn’t have to be a negative impact on peoples lives. Using any sex aid can be a satisfying way of enjoying yourself and your partner without becoming a demonic act. The media is all too quick vilify those who engage in sexual pursuits and this is both patronising and annoying, on that note I’m off to surf for some quality porn.