The Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health1 conservatively estimates 3% - 5% of the U.S. population suffers from sexual compulsion disorders. The estimate is considered low because it is based on those seeking treatment for sex addiction. Many of those afflicted avoid exposure and cannot be easily tracked.
Some indication of the extent of the problem is the amount of pornography available and used on the Internet. It is thought that pornography addiction is a form of sexual addiction that is both easier to pursue and less expensive. Called cybersex, this involves a non-contact sexual episode through private chats, either with or without a video connection. These sometimes develop into real world meetings.
Tracking data from 2010 by Nielsen Online2 showed that more than 25% of those with Internet access at work viewed pornography during working hours. This is an increase from 2007 figures.
As of May, 2010, Alexa research, which tracks Internet usage, includes two porn sites in the top 503 for worldwide traffic. This may not seem that impressive until you realize that almost all of the top 50 sites are social networking sites and that CNN.com ranks 57th.
25 million Americans visit cyber-sex sites between 1-10 hours per week. Another 4.7 million in excess of 11 hours per week. (MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study, Washington Times, 1/26/2000)
According to HYPERLINK "http://www.datamonitor.com/" Datamonitor, in 2003, over half of all spending on the Internet is related to sexual activity, with 30 million people logging on at pornographic Web sites daily. The expectation is that this figure will fall due to the rise of other forms of Internet commerce.
(Note that Internet statistics do not include peer-to-peer file sharing which is rampant in the area of pornography. This means that the true figures are probably significantly higher.)
photo by Stefano Bianchi
References
- Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health
- "How Big Is the SEC's Porn Problem?," ABC News
- Alexa topsites
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