Much has been made in the blogosphere of the recent study Red Light States: Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment? by  Benjamin Edelman. Many look at some of the study’s findings, specifically that some conservative states have higher subscription rates to pornographic web sites than some traditionally liberal states, and use that to drive home a political point about hypocrisy.

Edelman’s data set measures subscriptions to adult sites per 1,000 people, per 1,000 home Internet users, and per 1,000 broadband users, and most of the top subscribers per broadband users (pornography is a broadband hog, being comprised of mostly videos, often long and high-quality) are red states. Utah tops the list at 5.47 subscriptions per 1,000 homes with broadband, followed by Alaska, Mississippi, Hawaii, and Oklahoma. The first thing one should notice is that only 4 out of these 5 voted Republican in the 2008 Presidential Election. Hawaii went for Obama.

The second part of these demographic figures that jumps out is the fact that the three states with the lowest subscription rates, Montana (1.92), Idaho (1.98), and Tennessee (2.13), are all red states as well, and voted that way in 2008.

New Scientist, to be congratulated for their non-political take, sums the study up thusly:

Americans may paint themselves in increasingly bright shades of red and blue, but new research finds one thing that varies little across the nation: the liking for online pornography.

And there really is no wonder. Here are some other interesting facts from the study:

• Online adult entertainment in 2006 reached $2.8 billion in revenue, a 13% increase from 2005.
• In terms of growth among seven categories, subscriptions through the Internet grew 13.6% and through mobile devices (which are of course merely another way of accessing the Internet) grew 11.4% from 2005 to 2006.

Considering that the iPhone was not released until January of 2007, this last statistic is eye-opening. Mobile devices today are much more internet- and video-friendly than they were in 2006, and this trend will only continue. This study shows that pornography usage, through many different mediums, is on the rise all across the country, regardless of religious inclinations, political leanings, and family values. 

Many think that because of what they believe, where they live, or because of their strong family structure, that they don’t need to protect their families from the dangers of online pornography, online predators, and other dangers on the Internet. The truth is, the only way to really protect your family to install Internet safety software on not only your home computer, but your iPhone as well. 

InternetSafety.com provides Safe Eyes for Mac and PC home computers and laptops, Safe Eyes Mobile for the iPhone, and Ethershield for small businesses. Safe Eyes is the top-rated Internet safety software according to the leading independent consumer agency, is the two-time recipient of the PC Magazine Editors’ Choice Award, and earned a separate Editor’s Choice Award from LAPTOP Magazine. Safe Eyes is the only Internet safety software available that allows users to selectively block YouTube content video by video, and boasts other features such as monitoring IM chats, blocking peer-to-peer file sharing, and can send real-time alerts to the customer if someone is attempting to view blocked sites.

Filed under: Internet Safety News