Ogling and googling
Viva la Internet porn revolution!
JACQUES MARCOUX, VOLUNTEER STAFF
Feb. 14, 1996 — I will never forget that fateful day that forever changed my life. On that date my father purchased my family’s first desktop computer. Fully equipped and top of the line for its time, it had a 250MHz microprocessor, Windows 95 and a 56K modem.
There I sat, a pre-pubescent, hormonally charged 12-year-old, with the world at my fingertips. The Internet was still in its formative years and websites were on the primitive side. But to this day, I will never forget the first keyword I ever typed in on the Netscape search engine. You guessed it: sex.
In the seclusion of my basement, I cautiously and amazedly visited several websites, while alertly looking back over my shoulder periodically in the event my parents walked in the room. The mere sound of footsteps upstairs was enough to make me scramble for the power button, for getting caught mouse in hand (yes, the mouse . . . ) would spell complete and utter humiliation or possibly worse: household Internet sanctions.
In those days, to download a video would have been just short of a miracle with a dial-up modem, especially since it tied up the house phone line for hours. Instead, I was limited to images. I still remember the tremendously slow loading times for even a simple image file. I would watch the page load ever so slowly; the image unraveling itself a few centimeters at a time from the top down, while my mind impatiently jumped ahead guessing what the model will be wearing (or not wearing). Those were horribly difficult times.
Thankfully, as history has shown us, mankind innovates and presses forth. Today, young teenagers (and adults, as you will see) relish in what my generation could only dream of: high-speed Internet connections, Pentium 4 microprocessors and
“I will never forget the first keyword I ever typed in on the Netscape search engine.”
unlimited hard drive storage space. All these things are taken for granted by today’s Internet porn connoisseurs. The days of painfully slow downloads and limited selection are over; the Internet porn revolution has arrived.
With 260 new adult sites created daily for all tastes, pornography on the Net is growing at an unprecedented rate. It accounts for over 12 per cent of all sites on the Internet (89 per cent of it being produced in the U.S.). Worldwide Internet porn generates revenues reaching over $97 billion.
The Internet has created a relatively low-cost avenue for many hopeful young adult stars and starlets, each wanting a piece of the pie. It has allowed otherwise unknown porn stars to make a name for themselves and rise to the ranks of the porn queens such as Jenna Jameson and the Canadian male performer, Peter North.
Interestingly enough, adults in the 35-44 age group account for the most porn site visits. Disturbingly, since most of our parents fall in this category, the 45-54 age group is the runner-up trailing with 21 per cent of all visits. The younger crowd, contrary to popular belief, account for only 14 per cent of visits, which is likely due to credit card accessibility issues. And as expected, men lead the way with 72 per cent of all porn site hits compared with women at 28 per cent.
I know, at this point, this all seems so great. But believe it or not, there is a downside to these promising statistics. With the daily advent of multiple new porn sites, children are being exposed increasingly and more frequently to pornography at a younger age. The average age of a child’s first exposure to Internet pornography is 11. However, this is not the reason the concern. What is more alarming is the fact that many sites are often reached inadvertently by typing generic, non-porn related key-words into search engines such as: “Pokemon,” “twins,” “Barbie” and the list goes on.
It is estimated that over 90 per cent of children aged eight to 16 have accidentally stumbled upon pornographic material while using the Internet for homework research. A resulting effect of this unfortunate trend is that children will educate themselves on matters of sexuality, using hardcore porn as their baseline. This emphasizes the importance of encouraging open discussing about sex in the household rather than creating an environment where sex is deemed to be taboo.
The startling statistics on Internet porn usage appear to be an unambiguous indication that the anonymity of the Internet has allowed for otherwise conservative individuals to venture and explore their sexual fantasies. Without taking a moral stance on the issue, I believe it is safe to say that the propagation of Internet porn is bringing out the Kink in people around the world, for better or for worse.
Jacques Marcoux is a fourth-year commerce student.
