Zen Archer
2009-03-04 15:32:40 UTC
'Red' states are hotbeds for online pornography
SARAH BOESVELD
From Monday's Globe and Mail
March 2, 2009 at 9:08 AM EST
Welcome to Utah: home of the Mormon church and America's largest
population of porn surfers.
A new study from Harvard University found that Utah and a handful of
other Republican or "red" states are the highest subscribers to online
adult entertainment, findings that suggest tight regulations on the
distribution of pornography are doing little to keep it out of the
hands of the public.
To capture the snapshot, business school professor Benjamin Edelman
obtained a list of zip codes associated with credit-card subscriptions
from 2006 to 2008 from a top-10 retailer of adult entertainment. Then
he categorized the subscription rate by state to come up with his
findings, published last week in the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Utah had the highest web porn subscription rate of 5.47 for every
1,000 broadband-subscribing households. Alaska ran in at a close
second with 5.03 per 1,000 broadband homes. Mississippi, Hawaii and
Oklahoma weren't far behind.
Montana apparently has less of a hankering for adult entertainment,
with a rate of 1.92.
Idaho, Tennessee and Ohio also held down the bottom of the list.
"The high-purchasing states in my analysis tended to be red states,"
Prof. Edelman says.
On the whole, he further explains, those states do tend to be more
restrictive compared to California or New York, where it's much easier
to distribute this material.
The thirst for Web porn in some of these states can be explained by
two theories, he says.
"One theory is that people in Utah like adult entertainment more.
They're buying more of it because they want more of it," he says. And
two? "Adult entertainment could be harder to get in stores in Utah.
People in Utah who want this material may be buying it online because
they can't get it other ways."
States such as Mississippi and Arkansas have tight restrictions on the
distribution of pornography, he says. Some distributors won't ship to
them for fear of prosecution, he adds.
Geography could also be a factor, he suggests. Mail-order porn movies
and products would have to be shipped by air to Alaska and Hawaii. Web
porn is simply more accessible - travel costs are axed and all you
need is a credit card and a password.
What these findings really show, Prof. Edelman says, is that people
are accessing online porn more frequently and the consumption rates
are quite similar across the board. "Actually, things are not so
different across the United States." Demographics are important to
note, he says. Utah has nearly three times the consumption rate of a
state such as Connecticut, but it also has a very different
population. There tends to be lower demand for Web porn in areas where
there are more retired people and people with PhDs.
The study also tracked when people typically use their Web porn
subscriptions.
What day of the week do people log on the most? Monday.
"People are feeling stressed after the first day of the work week."
SARAH BOESVELD
From Monday's Globe and Mail
March 2, 2009 at 9:08 AM EST
Welcome to Utah: home of the Mormon church and America's largest
population of porn surfers.
A new study from Harvard University found that Utah and a handful of
other Republican or "red" states are the highest subscribers to online
adult entertainment, findings that suggest tight regulations on the
distribution of pornography are doing little to keep it out of the
hands of the public.
To capture the snapshot, business school professor Benjamin Edelman
obtained a list of zip codes associated with credit-card subscriptions
from 2006 to 2008 from a top-10 retailer of adult entertainment. Then
he categorized the subscription rate by state to come up with his
findings, published last week in the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Utah had the highest web porn subscription rate of 5.47 for every
1,000 broadband-subscribing households. Alaska ran in at a close
second with 5.03 per 1,000 broadband homes. Mississippi, Hawaii and
Oklahoma weren't far behind.
Montana apparently has less of a hankering for adult entertainment,
with a rate of 1.92.
Idaho, Tennessee and Ohio also held down the bottom of the list.
"The high-purchasing states in my analysis tended to be red states,"
Prof. Edelman says.
On the whole, he further explains, those states do tend to be more
restrictive compared to California or New York, where it's much easier
to distribute this material.
The thirst for Web porn in some of these states can be explained by
two theories, he says.
"One theory is that people in Utah like adult entertainment more.
They're buying more of it because they want more of it," he says. And
two? "Adult entertainment could be harder to get in stores in Utah.
People in Utah who want this material may be buying it online because
they can't get it other ways."
States such as Mississippi and Arkansas have tight restrictions on the
distribution of pornography, he says. Some distributors won't ship to
them for fear of prosecution, he adds.
Geography could also be a factor, he suggests. Mail-order porn movies
and products would have to be shipped by air to Alaska and Hawaii. Web
porn is simply more accessible - travel costs are axed and all you
need is a credit card and a password.
What these findings really show, Prof. Edelman says, is that people
are accessing online porn more frequently and the consumption rates
are quite similar across the board. "Actually, things are not so
different across the United States." Demographics are important to
note, he says. Utah has nearly three times the consumption rate of a
state such as Connecticut, but it also has a very different
population. There tends to be lower demand for Web porn in areas where
there are more retired people and people with PhDs.
The study also tracked when people typically use their Web porn
subscriptions.
What day of the week do people log on the most? Monday.
"People are feeling stressed after the first day of the work week."