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Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from , some forty millennia ago, to modern-day virtual reality presentations. A general distinction of adults-only sexual content is made, classifying it as pornography or erotica.
The oldest artifacts considered pornographic were discovered in Germany in 2008 and are dated to be at least 35,000 years old. Human enchantment with sexual imagery representations has been a constant throughout history. However, the reception of such imagery varied according to the historical, cultural, and national contexts. The Indian Sanskrit text Kama Sutra (3rd century CE) contained prose, poetry, and illustrations regarding sexual behavior, and the book was celebrated; while the British English text Fanny Hill (1748), considered "the first original English prose pornography," has been one of the most prosecuted and banned books. In the late 19th century, a film by Thomas Edison that depicted a kiss was denounced as obscene in the United States, whereas Eugène Pirou's 1896 film Bedtime for the Bride was received very favorably in France. Starting from the mid-twentieth century on, societal attitudes towards sexuality became lenient in the Western world where legal definitions of obscenity were made limited. In 1969, Blue Movie by Andy Warhol became the first film to depict unsimulated sex that received a wide theatrical release in the United States. This was followed by the "Golden Age of Porn" (1969–1984). The introduction of home video and the World Wide Web in the late 20th century led to global growth in the pornography business. Beginning in the 21st century, greater access to the Internet and affordable Mobile porn made pornography more mainstream.
Pornography has been vouched to provision a safe outlet for sexual desires that may not be satisfied within relationships and be a facilitator of sexual fulfillment in people who do not have a partner. Pornography consumption is found to induce psychological moods and emotions similar to those evoked during sexual intercourse and casual sex. Pornography usage is considered a widespread recreational activity in-line with other digitally mediated activities such as use of social media or video games. People who regard porn as sex education material were identified as more likely not to use condoms in their own sex life, thereby assuming a higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs); performers working for pornographic studios undergo regular testing for STIs unlike much of the general public. Comparative studies indicate higher tolerance and consumption of pornography among adults tends to be associated with their greater support for gender equality. Among feminist groups, some seek to abolish pornography believing it to be harmful, while others oppose censorship efforts insisting it is benign. A longitudinal study ascertained pornography use is not a predictive factor in intimate partner violence. Porn Studies, started in 2014, is the first international peer-reviewed, academic journal dedicated to critical study of pornographic "products and services".
Pornography is a major influencer of people's perception of sex in the digital age; numerous pornographic websites rank among the top 50 most visited websites worldwide. Called an "erotic engine", pornography has been noted for its key role in the development of various communication and media processing technologies. For being an early adopter of innovations and a provider of financial capital, the pornography industry has been cited to be a contributing factor in the adoption and popularization of media related technologies. The exact economic size of the porn industry in the early twenty-first century is unknown. In 2023, estimates of the total market value stood at over US$172 billion. The legality of pornography varies across countries. People hold diverse views on the availability of pornography. From the mid-2010s, unscrupulous pornography such as deepfake pornography and revenge porn have become issues of concern.
The oldest published reference to the word pornography as in 'new pornographie,' is dated back to 1638 and is credited to Nathaniel Butter in a history of the Fleet newspaper industry. The modern word pornography entered the English language as the more familiar word in 1842 via French "pornographie," from Greek "pornographos".
The term porn is an abbreviation of pornography. The related term πόρνη]] (pórnē) "prostitute" in Greek language, originally meant "bought, purchased" similar to pernanai "to sell", from the proto-Indo-European root per-, "to hand over" — alluding to act of selling.
The word pornography was originally used by Classics as "a bookish, and therefore inoffensive term for writing about prostitutes", but its meaning was quickly expanded to include all forms of "objectionable or obscene material in art and literature". In 1864, Webster's Dictionary published "a licentious painting" as the meaning for pornography, and the Oxford English Dictionary: "obscene painting" (1842), "description of obscene matters, obscene publication" (1977 or earlier).
Definitions for the term "pornography" are varied, with people from both pro- and anti-pornography groups defining it either favorably or unfavorably, thus making any definition very stipulative. Nevertheless, academic researchers have defined pornography as sexual subject material such as a picture, video, text, or audio that is primarily intended to assist sexual arousal in the consumer, and is created and commercialized with "the consent of all persons involved". Arousal is considered the primary objective, the raison d'etre a material must fulfill for it to be treated as pornographic. As some people can feel aroused by an image that is not meant for sexual arousal and conversely cannot feel aroused by material that is clearly intended for arousal, the material that can be considered as pornography becomes subjective.
Vast number of artifacts discovered in ancient Mesopotamia region had explicit depictions of heterosexual sex. Glyptic art from the Early Dynastic Period frequently showed scenes of frontal sex in the missionary position. In Mesopotamian Ex-voto from the early second millennium (), a man is usually shown penetrating a woman from behind while she bends over drinking beer through a straw. Assyria lead votive often portrayed a man standing and penetrating a woman as she rests on an altar. Scholars have traditionally interpreted all these depictions as scenes of hieros gamos (an ancient sacred marriage between a god and a goddess), but they are more likely to be associated with Inanna, the Mesopotamian goddess of sex and sacred prostitution. Many sexually explicit images, including models of male and female sexual organs were found in the temple of Inanna at Assur.
Depictions of sexual intercourse were not part of the general repertory of ancient Egyptian formal art, but rudimentary sketches of heterosexual intercourse have been found on pottery fragments and in graffiti. The final two thirds of the Turin Erotic Papyrus (Papyrus 55001), an Egyptian papyrus scroll discovered at Deir el-Medina, consists of a series of twelve vignettes showing men and women in various . The scroll was probably painted in the Ramesside period (1292–1075 BCE) and its high artistic quality indicates that it was produced for a wealthy audience. No other similar scrolls have yet been discovered.
Archaeologist Nikolaos Stampolidis had noted that the society of ancient Greece held lenient attitudes towards sexual representation in the fields of art and literature. The Greek poet Sappho's Ode to Aphrodite (600 BCE) is considered an earliest example of lesbian poetry. Red-figure pottery invented in Greece (530 BCE) often portrayed images that displayed eroticism. The fifth-century BC comic Aristophanes elaborated 106 ways of describing the male genitalia and in 91 ways the female genitalia. Lysistrata (411 BCE) is a sex-war comedy play performed in ancient Greece.
In India, Hinduism embraced an inquisitive attitude towards sex as an art and a spiritual ideal. Some ancient Hindu temples incorporated various aspects of sexuality into their art work. The temples at Khajuraho and Konark are particularly renowned for their sculptures, which had detailed representations of human sexual activity. These depictions were viewed with a spiritual outlook as sexual arousal is believed to indicate the embodying of the divine.
"pornography is sometimes characterised as the symptom of a degenerate society, but anyone even noddingly familiar with Greek vases or statues on ancient Hindu temples will know that so-called unnatural sex acts, orgies and all manner of complex liaisons have for millennia past been represented in art for the pleasure and inspiration of the viewer everywhere. The desire to ponder images of love-making is clearly innate in the human – perhaps particularly the male – psyche." — Tom HodgkinsonKama, the word used to connote sexual desire, was explored in Indian literary works such as the Kama Sutra, which dealt with the practical as well as the psychological aspects of human courtship and sexual intercourse. The Sanskrit text Kama sutra was compiled by the sage Vatsyayana into its final form sometime during the second half of the third century CE. This text, which included prose, poetry, as well as illustrations regarding erotic love and sexual behavior, is one of the most celebrated Indian erotic works. Ratirahasya is another work that explored kama.
Other examples of early art and literature of sexual nature include: Ars Amatoria (Art of Love), a second-century CE treatise on the art of seduction and sensuality by the Roman poet Ovid; the artifacts of the Moche people in Peru (100 CE to 800 CE); The Decameron, a collection of short stories, some of which are sexual in nature by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio; and the fifteenth-century Arabic sex manual The Perfumed Garden.
At around the same time, erotic graphic art that began to be extensively produced in Paris came to be known in the Anglosphere as "French postcards". Enlightenment-era France had been noted by historians as the center of origin for modern-era pornography. The works of French pornography, which often concentrated on the education of an ingénue into libertine, dominated the sale of sexually explicit content. The French sought to interlace narratives of sexual pleasure with philosophical and anti-establishment basis. Political pornography began with the French Revolution (1789–99). Apart from the sexual component, pornography became a popular medium for protest against the social and political norms of the time. Pornography during this period was used to explore the ideas of sexual freedom for women and men, the various methods of contraception, and to expose the offenses of powerful royals and elites. The working and lower classes in France produced pornographic material en masse with themes of impotency, incest, and orgies that ridiculed the authority of the Church-State, aristocrats, priests, monks, and other royalty.
One of the most important authors of socially radical pornography was the French aristocrat Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), whose name helped derive the words "sadism" and "sadist". He advocated libertine sexuality and published writings that were critical of authorities, many of which contained pornographic content. His work Justine (1791) interlaced orgiastic scenes along with extensive debates on the ills of property and traditional hierarchy in society.
For centuries before, sexually explicit material was considered a domain that is exclusive to Aristocracy classes. When pornographic material flourished in the Victorian-era England, the affluent classes believed they are sensible enough to deal with it, unlike the lower working classes whom they thought would get distracted by such material and cease to be productive. Beliefs that masturbation would make people ill, insane, or become blind also flourished. The obscenity act gave government officials the power to interfere in the private lives of people unlike any other law before. Some of the people suspected for masturbation were forced to wear chastity devices. "Cures" and "treatment" for masturbation involved such measures like giving electric shock and applying carbolic acid to the clitoris. The law was criticized for being established on still yet unproven claims that sexual material is noxious for people or public health.
The Comstock Act of 1873 is the American equivalent of the British Obscene Publications Act. The Comstock Act The anti-obscenity bill, drafted by Anthony Comstock, was debated for less than an hour in the US Congress before being passed into law. Apart from the power to seize and destroy any material alleged to be obscene, the law made it possible for the authorities to make arrests over any perceived act of obscenity, which included possession of contraceptives by married couples. Reportedly 15 tons of books and 4 million pictures were destroyed, and about 15 people were driven to suicide with 4,000 arrests. At least 55 people whom Comstock identified as abortionists were indicted under the Comstock Act.
The nineteenth-century legislation eventually outlawed the publication, retail and trafficking of certain writings and images that were deemed pornographic. Although laws ordered the destruction of shop and warehouse stock meant for sale, the private possession and viewing of (some forms of) pornography was not made an offense until the twentieth century. Historians have explored the role of pornography in determining . The Victorian attitude that pornography was only for a select few is seen in the wording of the Hicklin test, stemming from a court case in 1868, where it asked: "whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences".
Although officially prohibited, the sale of sexual material nevertheless continued through "under the counter" means. Magazines specialising in a genre called "saucy and spicy" became popular during this time (1896 to 1955), titles of few popular magazines include; Wink: A Whirl of Girls, Flirt: A FRESH Magazine, and Snappy. Cover stories in these magazines featured segments such as "perky pin-ups" and "high-heel cuties". Some of the popular erotic literary works from the twentieth century include the novels: Story of the Eye (1928), Tropic of Cancer (1934), Tropic of Capricorn (1938), the French Histoire d'O ( Story of O) (1954); and the short stories: Delta of Venus (1977), and Little Birds (1979).
Pornographic film production commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion picture in 1895. A pioneer of the motion picture camera, Thomas Edison, released various films, including The Kiss that were denounced as obscene in late 19th century America. Two of the earliest pioneers of pornographic films were Eugène Pirou and Albert Kirchner. Kirchner directed the earliest surviving pornographic film for Pirou under the trade name "Léar". The 1896 film, Le Coucher de la Mariée, showed Louise Willy performing a striptease. Pirou's film inspired a genre of risqué French films that showed women disrobing, and other filmmakers realized profits could be made from such films.
In the United States, pornography is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution unless it constitutes obscenity or child pornography that is produced with real children. Nevertheless, in Stanley v. Georgia (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of an adult to possess obscene material in private.. Subsequently, however, the Supreme Court rejected the claim that under Stanley there is a constitutional right to provide obscene material for private use United States v. Reidel, 402 U.S. 351 (1971). or to acquire it for private use. United States v. 12 200-Ft. Reels of Film, 413 U.S. 123 (1973). The right to possess obscene material does not imply the right to provide or acquire it, because the right to possess it "reflects no more than ... the law's 'solicitude to protect the privacies of the life within the'". United States v. 12 200-Ft. Reels of Film, 413 U.S. at 127.
In 1969, Blue Movie by Andy Warhol became the first feature film to depict explicit sexual intercourse that received a wide public theatrical release in the United States.
Film scholar Linda Williams remarked that prurience "is a key term in any discussion of moving-image sex since the sixties. Often it is the "interest" to which no one wants to own up". In 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America created a new film ratings system in which any film that was not approved by the association was released with an "X" rating. When pornographers began to release their productions with the rating X, the association adopted NC-17 rating for adults only films, leaving the X rating to pornography. Later the invented gimmick rating "XXX" became a standard for pornographic material.
In 1971, Sweden removed its obscenity clause. Further relaxation of legislations during the early 1970s in the US, West Germany and other countries led to rise in pornography production. The 1970s had been described by Linda Williams as 'the "Classical" Era of Theatrically Exhibited Porn', a time period now called the Golden Age of Porn.
In 1979, the British Committee on Obscenity and Film Censorship better known as the Williams Committee, formed to review the laws concerning obscenity reported that pornography could not be harmful and to think anything else is to see pornography "out of proportion". The committee declared that existing variety of laws in the field should be scrapped and so long as it is prohibited from children, adults should be free to consume pornography as they see fit.
The Meese Report in 1986 argued against loosening restrictions on pornography in the US. The report was criticized as biased, inaccurate, and not credible.
In 1988, the Supreme Court of California ruled in the People v. Freeman case that "filming sexual activity for sale" does not amount to procuring or prostitution and shall be given protection under the first amendment. This ruling effectively legalized the production of X rating adult content in the Los Angeles county, which by 2005 had emerged as the largest center in the world for the production of pornographic films. Pornographic films appeared throughout the twentieth century. First as (1900–1940s), then as porn loops or short films for peep shows (1960s), followed by as feature films for theatrical release in adult movie theaters (1970s), and as (1980s).
"We were the first to show full frontal nudity. The first to expose the clitoris completely. I think we made a very serious contribution to the liberalization of laws and attitudes. HBO would not have gone as far as it does if it was not for us breaking the barriers. Much that has happened now in the Western world with respect to sexual advances is directly due to steps that we took." — Bob Guccione, Penthouse founder in 2004.The tussle between Playboy and Penthouse paled into obscurity when Larry Flynt started Hustler, which became the first magazine to publish "pink shots" in 1974. Hustler projected itself as the magazine for the working classes as opposed to the urban centered Playboy and Penthouse. During the same time in 1972, Helen Gurley Brown, editor of the Cosmopolitan magazine, published a centerfold that featured actor Burt Reynolds in nude. His popular pose has been later emulated by many other famous people. The success of Cosmo led to the launch of Playgirl in 1973. At their peak, Playboy sold close to six million copies a month in the US, while Penthouse nearly five million. In the 2010s, as the market for printed versions of pornographic magazines declined, with Playboy selling about a million and Penthouse about a hundred thousand, many magazines became online publications. As of 2005, the best-selling US adult magazines maintained greater reach compared to most other non-pornographic magazines, and often ranked among top-sellers.
With the introduction of Broadband, much of the distribution networks of pornography moved online giving consumers anonymous access to a wide range of pornographic material. To have better control over their content on the Internet some professional pornographers maintain their own websites. Danni's Hard Drive started in 1995 by Danni Ashe is considered one of the earliest online pornographic websites, coded by Ashe – a former stripper and nude model, the website was reported by CNN to had generated revenues of $6.5 million by 2000. According to some leading pornography providers on the Internet, customer subscription rates for a website would be about one in a thousand people who visit the site for a monthly fees averaging around $20. Ashe said in an interview that her website employs 45 people and she expects to earn $8 million in 2001 alone. The total number of pornographic websites in 2000 were estimated to be more than 60,000. The development of streaming sites, peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) networks, and tube sites led to a subsequent decline in the sale of and adult magazines.
Starting in the 21st century, greater access to the Internet and affordable Mobile porn made pornography more accessible and culturally mainstream. The total number of pornographic websites in 2012 was estimated to be around 25 million comprising 12% of all the websites. About 75 percent of households in the US gained Internet access by 2012. Data from 2015 suggests an increase in pornography consumption over the past few decades which is attributed to the growth of Internet pornography. Technological advancements such as , , smartphones, and Wi-Fi have democratized the production and consumption of pornography. Subscription-based service providers such as OnlyFans, founded in 2016, are becoming popular as the platforms for pornography trade in the digital era. Apart from the professional pornographers, content creators on such platforms include others like; a physics teacher, a Renee Gracie, a woman undergoing cancer treatment. In 2022, the total pornographic content accessible online was estimated to be over 10,000 terabytes.
AVN and XBIZ are the industry-specific organizations based in the US that provide information about the adult entertainment business. XBIZ Awards and AVN Awards, analogous to the Golden globes and Oscars, are the two prominent award shows of the adult entertainment industry. Free Speech Coalition (FSC) is a trade association and Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC) is a labor union for the adult entertainment industry based in the US. The scholarly study of pornography notably in cultural studies is limited. Porn Studies, which began in 2014, is the first international , academic journal that is exclusively dedicated to the critical study of the "products and services" identified to constitute pornography.
Mainstream pornography involves professional performers who work for various corporate film studios in their respective productions.
Mainstream pornography productions are usually classified as feature or gonzo. Feature film involve storylines, characterizations, scripted dialog, elegant costumes, detailed sets, and soundtracks, which make the productions look similar to mainstream Hollywood productions but with the depictions of explicit sexual activity included. Features contain both original narratives as well as Porn parody that parody mainstream feature films, TV shows, celebrities, video games or literary works. Gonzo is a form of content creation that attempts to put the viewer into the scene, this is commonly achieved by close-up camera work or performers talking to the audience; also called "wall-to-wall", gonzo involves some aspects of "Fourth wall" between the audience and performers. The term "gonzo" is often misused as a genre to identify demeaning depictions, however gonzo is a film-making style and not a genre. Gonzo style is variably incorporated in the creation of all types or genres of adult content. Gonzos do not involve the expensive sets or the costly production values of features, which makes their production relatively inexpensive. From the mid-2010s about 95 percent of porn productions are gonzo.
Starting in the 1990s, Internet eased the access to pornography. The pay-per-view model enabled people to buy adult content directly from cable and satellite TV service providers. According to Showtime Television network report, in 1999 adult pay-per-view services made $367 million, which was six times more than the $54 million earned in 1993. Although this development resulted in a decline in rentals, the revenues generated over the Internet, provided much financial gains for pornography producers and credit card companies among others. By the mid-1990s, the adult film industry had agents for performers, production teams, distributors, advertisers, industry magazines, and trade associations. The introduction of home video and the World Wide Web in the late twentieth century led to global growth in the pornography business. Performers got multi-film contracts. In 1998, Forrester Research reported that online "adult content" industry's estimated annual revenue is at $750 million to $1 billion.
Retail stores or sex shops engaged in the sale of adult entertainment material ranging from videos, magazines, sex toys and other products, significantly contributed to the overall commercialization of pornography. Sex shops sell their products on both online shopping platforms such as Amazon and on specialized websites.
In 2000, the total annual revenue from the sales and rentals of pornographic material in the US was estimated to be over $4 billion. The hotel industry through the sale of adult movies to their customers as part of room service, over pay-per-view channels, had generated an annual income of about $180-$190 million. Some of the major companies and hotel chains that were involved in the sale of adult films over pay-per-view platforms include; AT&T, Time Warner, DirecTV from General Motors, EchoStar, Liberty Media, Marriott International, Westin and Hilton Worldwide. The companies said their services are in response to a growing American market that wanted pornography delivered at home. Studies in 2001 had put the total US annual revenue (including video, pay-per-view, Internet and magazines) between $2.6 billion and $3.9 billion.
From the mid 2000s, emergence of tube sites led to an increase in free streaming and a decrease in traditional studio sales. Many performers turned to subscription-based platforms like OnlyFans, which continue to provide financial independence for some, but also increase market saturation, making it harder for new creators to establish themselves. Additionally, dependence on third-party platforms leaves creators vulnerable to policy changes and financial restrictions. In 2020, Visa and Mastercard implemented restrictions on processing payments for adult content due to concerns over illegal material. Additionally, the arrival of AI-generated adult content, including deepfake pornography, poses ethical and legal dilemmas.
As of 2011, pornography was becoming one of the biggest businesses in the United States. In 2014, the porn industry was believed to bring in at least $13 billion on a yearly basis in the United States. Through the 2010s, many pornography production companies and top pornographic websites such as Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn have been acquired by MindGeek, a company that has been described as "a monopoly" in the pornography business. This development was identified as a problem. According to Marina Adshade, a professor from the Vancouver School of Economics and the author of Dollars and Sex: How economics influences sex and love, having a monopoly in the pornography business has forced the producers to reduce their charges, and radically changed the work of performers "who are now under greater pressure to perform acts that they would have been able to refuse in the past", all at a lower price without profits for themselves.
Online pornography is available both for a fee and free of charge. The availability of free porn on the Internet has led to a decline in the business of mainstream pornography. Piracy is estimated to result in losses of some $2 billion a year for the porn industry. Budgets of many studios reduced considerably and contracts for performers became less common. Reportedly, applications by established pornography companies for porn-shoot permits in Los Angeles County fell by 95 percent during the period 2012 to 2015. According to Mark Spiegler, an adult talent agent, in the early 2000s female performers made about $100,000 a year. By 2017, the amount is about $50,000.
The technological era led to decline of the studio and "the rise of the pornography worker herself". Newer ways of monetization have opened for the pornography workers who are taking the path of entrepreneurship. In 1995, Jenna Jameson signed her first contract with the porn studio Wicked Pictures. After building a brand image for herself she started her own company ClubJenna, which by 2005 was reportedly earning an annual revenue of $30-$35 million. "Performers are hustlers now," said Chanel Preston (a performer who was also chairperson of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee), while noting that performers have to be creative to sustain their income and reach audience, both of which, she said are mainly achieved through "feature dancing, selling merchandise, webcamming", among other activities. "Custom" pornography made according to the requests of customer clients has emerged as one new business niche. The average career for the new age performer lasts about four to six months. Before moving on to the business side, adult performers use studio works to advertise and build a brand image for themselves. They acquire an audience who would later pay at personal website or Webcam model. Commercial webcamming, which emerged in the 1990s as a niche sector in the adult entertainment industry, grew to become a multibillion-dollar business by the mid-2020s.
The exact economic size of the porn industry in the early-twenty-first century is unknown to anyone. Kassia Wosick, a sociologist from New Mexico State University, estimated the global porn market value at $97 billion in 2015, with the US revenue estimated at $10 and $12 billion. IBISWorld, a leading researcher of various markets and industries, calculated total US revenue to reach $3.3 billion by 2020. On the basis of a research report by a market analysis firm, USA Today published that the estimated worth of the adult entertainment industry market in 2023 is over $172 billion.
One of the world's leading anti-pornography campaigners, Gail Dines, has stated that "the demand for porn has driven the development of core cross-platform technologies for data compression, Search engine, transmission and Micropayment." Many of the technological developments that had been led by pornography have benefited other fields of human activity too. In the early 2000s, Wicked Pictures pushed for the adoption of the MPEG-4 file format ahead of others, this later became the most commonly used format across high-speed Internet connections. In 2009, Pink Visual became one of the first companies to license and produce content with a software introduced by a small Toronto-based company called "Spatial view", which later made it possible to view 3D content on .
As an early adopter of innovations, the pornography industry has been cited to be a crucial factor in the development and popularization of various media processing and communication technologies. From innovative smaller film cameras, to the , and the Internet, the porn industry has employed newer technologies much ahead than other commercial industries, this early adoption provided the developers their early financial capital, which aided in the further development of these technologies. The success of innovative technologies is predicted by their greater use in the porn industry.
Pornographic content accounted for most videotape sales during the late 1970s. The pornography industry has been considered an influential factor in deciding the in media, including being a factor in the VHS vs. Betamax format war (the videotape format war) and the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war (the high-def format war). Piracy, the illegal copying and distribution of material, is of great concern to the porn industry. The industry has been the subject of many litigations and formalized anti-piracy efforts.
Many of the innovative data rendering procedures, enhanced payment systems, customer service models, and security methods developed by pornography companies have been co-opted by other mainstream businesses. Pornography companies served as the basis for a large number of innovations in web development. Much of the IT work in porn companies is done by people who are referred to as a "porn webmaster", often paid well in what are small businesses, they have more freedom to test innovations compared to other IT employees in larger organizations who tend to be risk-averse.
The various mediums for pornography depictions have evolved throughout the course of history, starting from prehistoric cave paintings, about forty millennia ago, to futuristic virtual reality renditions. Experts in the pornography business predict more people in the future would consume porn through virtual reality headsets, which are expected to give consumers better personal experiences than they can have in the real world. Speculations are rife about an increased presence of sex robots in the future pornography productions.
Pornography consumption in people is found to induce "psychological moods and emotions" similar to those evoked during actual sexual intercourse and casual sex. Researchers identified four broad motivating factors for pornography consumption: an innate sexual drive or desire, to learn about sex and improve ones own sexual performance, peer pressure or social groups, lack of sexual relationship or absence of partner. Majority of pornography consumers tend to be male, unmarried, with higher levels of education. Younger people are more frequent consumers of porn than older people. There's been a gradual increase in the consumption rates across different age groups with the increased availability of free porn over the Internet.
Researchers at McGill University ascertained that on viewing pornographic content, men reached their maximum Sexual arousal in about 11 minutes and women in about 12 minutes. An average visit to a pornographic website lasts for 11.6 minutes. Both marriage and divorce are found to be associated with lower subscription rates for adult entertainment websites. Subscriptions are more widespread in regions that have higher measures of social capital. Pornographic websites are most often visited during office hours. As per a recent CNBC report, seventy per cent of online-porn access in the US happens between nine-to-five hours.
Sexual arousal and sexual enhancement tend to be the primary motivations among the self-reported reasons by users for their pornography consumption. Studies had found that greater levels of psychological distress leads to higher rates of pornography consumption. Pornography may provide a temporary relief from stress, or anxiety. A need to assuage coping and boredom is also found to result in higher consumption of pornography.
Since the late 1960s, attitudes towards pornography have become more positive in Nordic countries; in Sweden and Finland the consumption of pornography has increased over the years. A 2006 study of Norway adults found that over 80% of the respondents used pornography at some point in their lives, a difference of 20% was observed between men and women in their respective use. A 2015 study in Finland noted that 75% of the 30-40-y.o. women and above 90% of the 30-40-y.o. men found porn "very exciting". Of those who had watched porn during the latest year, 71% of the 18-24-y.o. women, almost 60% of the 18-49-y.o. women, and a tenth of 65+ women did so; among men, the numbers were above 90% of the men under 50-y.o., 3/4 of the 18-64-y.o. and most of the 65+ y.o.; the numbers were quickly increasing, particularly for women, partially due to increased masturbation.
In 2012 and 2013, interviews with large number of Australians revealed that in the past year 63% of men and 20% of women had viewed pornography.
A 2020 Egyptian study surveying 15,027 individuals in Arab world noted a prevalence of pornography use "nearly similar to Danish, German, and American ones".
In 2021, it was estimated that in modern countries, 46–74% of men and 16–41% of women are regular users of pornography. In 2022, a national survey in Japan, of men and women aged 20 to 69 revealed that 76% of men and 29% of women had used pornography as part of their sexual activity. A 2023 study reported that in Netherlands, young men who watched porn in the previous six months ranged between 65% (13–15-y.o.) to 96% (22–24-y.o.), and among young women between 22% (13–15-y.o.) to 75% (22–24-y.o.).
Pornography in the United States is legal provided it does not depict minors, and is not obscene. The community standards, as indicated in the Supreme Court decision, of the 1973 Miller v. California case determine what constitutes as "obscene". The US courts do not have jurisdiction over content produced in other countries, but anyone distributing it in the US is liable to prosecution under the same community standards. As the courts consider community standards foremost in deciding any obscenity charge, the changing nature of community standards over the course of time and place makes instances of prosecution limited.
In the United States, a person receiving unwanted commercial mail that he or she deems pornographic (or otherwise offensive) may obtain a Prohibitory Order. Many online sites require the user to tell the website they are a certain age and no other age verification is required. A total of 16 states and the Republican Party have passed resolutions declaring pornography a "public health" threat. These resolutions are symbolic and do not put any restrictions but are made to sway the public opinion on pornography. The notion of pornography as a threat to public health is not supported by any international health organization.
The adult film industry regulations in California requires that all performers in pornographic films use condoms. However, the use of condoms in pornography is rare. As porn does better financially when actors are without condoms many companies film in other states. Twitter is the popular social media platform used by the performers in porn industry as it does not censor content unlike Instagram and Facebook.
Pornography in Canada, as in the US, criminalizes the "production, distribution, or possession" of materials that are deemed obscene. Obscenity, in the Canadian context, is defined as "the undue exploitation of sex" provided it is connected to images of "crime, horror, cruelty, or violence". As to what is considered "undue" is decided by the courts, which assess the community standards in deciding whether exposure to the given material may result in any harm, with harm defined as "predisposing people to act in an anti-social manner".
Pornography in the United Kingdom does not have the concept of community standards. Following the highly publicized murder of Jane Longhurst, the UK government in 2009 criminalized the possession of what it terms as "extreme pornography". The courts decide whether any material is legally extreme or not, conviction for penalty include fines or incarceration up to three years. Content banned includes representations that are considered "grossly offensive, disgusting, or otherwise of an obscene character". While there are no restrictions on depiction of male ejaculation, any depiction of female ejaculation in pornography is completely banned in the UK, as well as in Australia.
In most of Southeast Asia, Middle East, and China, the production, distribution or possession of pornography is illegal and outlawed. In Russia and Ukraine, is allowed provided it contains no explicit performances; in other parts of the world commercial webcamming is banned as a form of pornography.
Disseminating pornography to a minor is generally illegal. There are various measures to restrict minors' any access to pornography, including protocols for pornographic stores.
Pornography can infringe into basic human rights of those involved, especially when sexual consent was not obtained. Revenge porn is a phenomenon where disgruntled sexual partners release images or video footage of intimate sexual activity of their partners, usually on the Internet, without authorization or consent of the individuals involved. In many countries there has been a demand to make such activities specifically illegal carrying higher punishments than mere breach of privacy, or image rights, or circulation of prurient material. As a result, some jurisdictions have enacted specific laws against "revenge porn".
Drawing the line depends on time, place and context. Occidental mainstream culture has been increasingly getting "pornification" (i.e. influenced by pornographic themes, with mainstream films often including acts). Since the very definition of pornography is subjective, material that is considered erotic or even religious in one society may be denounced as pornography in another. When European travellers visited India in the 19th century, they were dismayed at the religious representation of sexuality on the Hindu temples and deemed them as pornographic. Similarly many films and television programs that are unobjectionable in contemporary Western societies are labeled as "pornography" in Muslim societies.
In the initial years, studios assessed performers suitability on the results from their blood and urine tests. According to a 2019 study by the American College of Emergency Physicians, swab tests offer better insight than urine samples for detecting bacterial STIs like chlamydia and gonorrhea. Performers such as Cherie DeVille have emphasized swab tests for safer sex. According to performer Angela White, studios will not allow them to work unless they are completely clean, insisting on performers testing regularly, she said "So for me, because I work so much, I’m testing every 12 days – and that is a full sweep of STIs such as chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, HIV and trichomoniasis. We’re doing throat swabs, vaginal swabs and anal swabs." Allan Ronald, a Canadian doctor and HIV/AIDS specialist who did groundbreaking studies on the transmission of STIs among prostitutes in Africa, said there's no doubt about the efficiency of the testing method, but he felt a little uncomfortable: "because it's giving the wrong message — that you can have multiple sex partners without condoms — but I can't say it doesn't work."
Relatedly, it has been found that individuals who received little sex education or perceive pornography as a source of information about sex are less apt to use condoms in their own sex life, making themselves more susceptible to contract STIs. In 2020—the US National Sex Education Standards—released recommendations to incorporate "porn literacy" to students from grade 6 to 12 as part of sex education in the US.
Veteran performer and former nurse Nina Hartley, who has a degree in nursing, stated that the amount of time involved in shooting a scene can be very long, and with condoms in place it becomes a painful proposition as their usage is uncomfortable despite the use of lube, causes friction burn, and opens up lesions in the genital mucosa. Advocating the testing method for performers, Hartley said, "Testing works for us, and condoms work for outsiders."
"We're tested every fourteen days. That is literally twenty-three more times than the average American. If that person makes it to their yearly physical. I have met tons of people that haven't been to the doctor in years. That scares me because they have no idea what their status is.... I don't hook up with people outside of the porn industry because I'm terrified. And I'm not the only one. There's many performers that know: if you go out into the wild, you will come back with something." — Ash Hollywood (Porn actress).Emphasizing that performers in the industry take necessary precautions like PrEP and are at lower risk to contract HIV than most sexually active persons outside the industry, many prominent female performers have vehemently opposed regulatory measures like Measure B that sought to make the use of condoms mandatory in pornographic films. Professional female performers have called the use of condoms on a daily basis at work an occupational hazard as they cause micro-tears, friction burn, swelling, and yeast infections, which altogether, they say, makes them more susceptible to contract STIs.
Pornography is noted for engrossing people "on more than masturbatory levels". Aesthetic philosophers argue whether pornographic representations can be considered as expressions of art. Pornography has been equated with journalism as both offer a view into the unknown or the hidden aspects. French philosopher Michel Foucault remarked that, "it is in pornography that we find information about the hidden, the forbidden and the taboo".
Scholars such as Linda Williams, Jennifer Nash, and Tim Dean believe pornography "is a form of thinking", comprised with ideas that are way more reflective about sexuality and gender than what the creators or consumers of pornography intend. Pornography has been referred by people as a means to explore their sexuality. People have reported porn being helpful in learning about human sexuality in general. Studies recommend clinical practitioners to use pornography as an instruction aid to show their clients new and alternative sexual behaviors as part of psychosexual therapy. British psychologist, Oliver James, known for his work on 'happiness', stated that "a high proportion of men use porn as a distraction or to reduce stress ... It serves an anti-depressant purpose for the unhappy." British-American novelist, Salman Rushdie opined that pornography presence in society is "a kind of standard-bearer for freedom, even civilisation".
As per evaluation by medical professionals, pornography can neither be good nor bad as it does not endorse or advocate a single set of values regarding sex. As such, individuals may introspect their own values with regards to sex while evaluating pornography. The relationship between pornography and its audience is found to be complex. While many users reported their use to have had positive effects, others especially women were found to be troubled with body image issues, the cause of which is attributed to the unrealistic image of "beauty" that pornography portrays. The increasing prevalence of alleged beauty enhancing procedures such as breast augmentation and labiaplasty among the common populace has been attributed to the popularity of pornography.
Data from pornographic websites regarding the viewing habits of people is studied by academics to analyze the sexual preferences and mating choices. More often men look for women who have larger chest and hips, with a smaller Waist–hip ratio. Women are found to prefer men who are taller, stronger, appear highly masculine, and are in roles that can provide resources while being protective (CEO, doctor, athlete, lawmen).
Studies on harmful effects of pornography include finding any potential influence of pornography on rape, domestic violence, sexual dysfunction, difficulties with sexual relationships, and child sexual abuse. A longitudinal study had ascertained that pornography use cannot be a perpetrating factor in intimate partner violence. A 2020 study that analyzed depictions in video-pornography found that normative sexual behaviors (e.g., vaginal intercourse, fellatio) were the most commonly depicted, while depictions of extreme acts of violence and rape were very rare. There is no clear evidence to assume that pornography is a cause of rape. Several studies conclude that liberalization of porn in society may be associated with decreased rates of rape and sexual violence, while others have suggested no effect, or are inconclusive. No correlation has been found between pornography use and the practice of sexual consent or lack thereof.
Mental health experts are divided over the issue of pornography use being a problem for people. While some literature reviews suggest pornography use can be addictive, insufficient evidence exists to draw conclusions. According to clinical psychologist and certified sex therapist David Ley, calling pornography an "addiction" has been "an area of substantial, protracted controversy and debate". Ley explained pornography doesn't effect an adult brain or body in the way alcohol or drugs do, he said "An alcoholic going cold turkey can have seizures and die because their brain has become physiologically dependent on the alcohol, but no one has ever had seizures or died from not getting to watch porn when they want to." Scholars note that pornography use has no implication on public health as it does not meet the definition of a public health crisis.
Neuroscience has noted that minds of the young are in developmental stages and exposure to emotionally charged material such as pornography would likely have an impact on them unlike on adults, and has suggested caution while enabling potential access to such material. Opposition to pornography use is associated with sexual satisfaction, gender violence, and marital quality (wives watching pornography more frequently scored much better than the rest). Some issues of doxing and revenge porn had been linked to a few pornography websites. Since the mid-2010s deepfake pornography has become an issue of concern.
People who supported regulated pornography expressed lesser attitudes of sexism than people who sought to abolish pornography. Notably, non-feminists are found more likely to support a ban on pornography than feminists. Many feminists, both male and female, have reflected that the effects of pornography on society are neutral. Adult users of pornography were found more egalitarian than nonusers, they are more likely to hold favorable attitudes towards women in positions of power and in workplaces outside home than the nonusers.
Feminist resentment about pornography tend to focus on two concerns: that pornography depicts violence and aggression, and that pornography objectifies women. Multiple analyses of pornographic videos found that Women have been overwhelmingly at the receiving end of aggression from male performers; with the reaction of Women being either positive or neutral towards aggression, which is at odds considering a report that found only 14.2% of US adult women find pain during sex as appealing. Two studies in the 1990s found that Black women were the targets of aggression and faced more violence from both Black and White men than did White women. However, more recent research from 2018 found that Black women were the least likely group of women to suffer nonconsensual aggression and are more likely to receive affection from their male partners. While Black men engaged in fewer intimate behaviors than White men; White women were found more likely to experience violence during sexual activity with White men than with Black men.
Concerning Asian women, a 2016 study based on a sample of 3053 videos from Xvideos.com, found that in the 170 videos of the Asian women category, there was much less aggression, less objectification, but also the women had less agency. However, another study found that in a sample of 172 videos from Pornhub, the 25+ videos of the Asian/Japanese category had considerably more aggression than those of other categories. A 2002 study of "internet rape sites" found that among the 56 clear pictures they found, 34 had Asian women, and nearly half the sites had either an image or a text reference to an Asian woman. Findings on depictions of Asian women in pornography aren't consistent in scientific literature.
The prevalence of aggression in pornography appears to be changing. A 2018 study of popular videos on Pornhub found that segments of aggression towards women are fewer now, and they have reduced gradually over the past decade with viewers preferring content where women genuinely experience pleasure.
Other sex work exclusionary feminists have insisted that pornography presents a severely distorted image of sexual consent, and it reinforces sexual myths like: women are readily available–and desire to engage in sex at any time–with any man–on men's terms–and always respond positively to men's advances.
The works of Camille Paglia established that westerners have been "paganism" for long and pornography has been an inseparable part of western culture. Wendy McElroy has noted that both feminism and pornography are mutually related, with both thriving in environments of tolerance, and both repressed anytime regulations are placed on sexual expression. Societies where pornography and sexual expression is prohibited are more likely to be the places where women are often subjected to violence and sexual abuse.
Furthermore, the advent of the VCR, home video, and affordable video cameras allowed for the possibility of feminist pornography. Feminist porn directors are interested in challenging representations of men and women, as well as in providing sexually-empowering imagery that features many kinds of bodies. Angela White started her own production company, AWG Entertainment, in which she has complete creative control over the content—from her partners, to the location, costumes, and the "vibe" of the video, "I am a feminist, so what I create is feminist, and I produce ethical porn, which is when everything is consensual", she said.
Women are more likely to consume porn that is "female-centered" and feature acts such as cunnilingus, a study of pornographic videos found that when men spend more time performing cunnilingus they have higher volumes of Ejaculation, an increase in sexual arousal resulting from exposure to the vaginal secretion 'copulins' during cunnilingus is reasoned to be the cause. Female-centric porn is mostly made by women, in these works the initiation of sexual activity is done by the female. Porn for women is identified by factors like greater attention on "sensual surroundings" and "soft focus camerawork", rather than on explicit depiction of sexual activity, making the productions more warm and humane compared to the traditional porn made for heterosexual men.
"If feminists define pornography, per se, as the enemy, the result will be to make a lot of women ashamed of their sexual feelings and afraid to be honest about them. And the last thing women need is more sexual shame, guilt, and hypocrisy—this time served up by feminism" — Ellen Willis.
A 2013 study refuted the notion that porn actresses have higher rates of psychological problems than regular women. The study compared 177 porn actresses with regular women of similar age, ethnicity, and marital status, and found that the porn actresses had "higher levels of self-esteem, positive feelings, social support, sexual satisfaction, and spirituality" compared to the regular women.
Shiva and Shakti in a state of "copulation" represent the flow of "erotic energy" in an individual. Sigmund Freud called the feminine Shakti "libido that cannot be simply repressed." Self-realization or becoming aware of one's " 'deep' femininity" entails dealing with the powerful sexual energy. Schools of religious thought such as the Kundalini yoga and Tantra, which involve using the sexual energy for purpose of self-realization had been developed in India. The concept of gender had been studied in Hinduism for long, where the conclusion was arrived that the human self, an emanation from the nondual Absolute—is androgynous, and is encased in human bodies, which themselves are androgyne in the sense that every body is a compound of the feminine (spirit) and the masculine (matter) principles. Sexuality is considered a creative function of nature to align the two principles with the nondual Absolute. The masculine and the feminine principles of the self have been identified to the deities Shiva and Shakti, who make-up the two Sexual polarity; by establishing a connection between the two, for the flow of erotic energy (as in the case of an electric circuit between positive and negative terminals for the flow of electric current), in one's own being—by the means of sexual stimulation—through "erotic visualization" or "ritual copulation", the self would "divest" from its body identity and realign into the "Ardhanarishvara", which, then represents a unit microcosm mirroring the nondual macrocosm; thus an individual in being one with the absolute experiences bliss-considered as the power of the goddess (Shakti) in a tangible form. The Hindu tantric idea of feminine and masculine principles arriving at unity in the "divine feminine" or the "unified divine consciousness" is analogous to the Analytical psychology idea of coincidentia oppositorum which expounds the unity of opposites.
In the Hindu tantric view, the women who participate in union rituals, thereby enabling men to attain self-realization are regarded as shakti or the goddess, as they are believed to embody her. Recognition of the deity in an objective woman is centered upon a man's acceptance of the subjective feminine and the primacy of her desires. Tricarico professed that modern-day pornography in its essence is a "desacralised, technological, and consumerist" equivalent of the ancient sacred prostitution a custom that involved honoring of the sacred feminine and worship of the prostitutes as goddess. The feminine is believed to embody particular qualities of the sacred or divine more broadly and deeply than the masculine, consequently in women, the ability to incorporate Nondualism awareness is assumed to be higher. Tricarico argued that women in porn, through their performances of many sexual acts, would inadvertently approach the non-differentiated state, an effect which he called the "intimation of hierophany". "Porn actresses may embody the medium to enter what used to be the realm of the sacred", he said. The actresses have been likened to the "descendants of the lost goddesses" who are now offering the gift of the "numinous" to all through their performances, but are unacknowledged or devalued for their contributions.
The use of epithets like "bitch", "whore", "slut" for sexually active women has been attributed to the denial of the subjective feminine by men. The subdued acceptance of female sexuality, as a value in its own right, is manifested when a man's admiration for the "bitch" gets subtended if she happens to be his wife or girlfriend. Along with showing "admiration, lust, gratitude, and desire", men show brazen hate and disgust towards women, this behavioral dichotomy had been ascribed to the "patriarchal hypocrisy" embedded in men. The unconscious perception by men of the greater ability in women to reach the undifferentiated state of psyche is reasoned to be a cause for their intentional humiliation, wilful devaluation, and deliberate belittlement of women.
According to Julia Kristeva, a psychoanalysis scholar, the psychological rejection and fear of the mother figure in males is the root cause for their behaviors that seek to subjugate women. Men in their infancy live in a state of "undifferentiated physical and psychic fusion" with the mother, experiencing "emotional exhilaration and jouissance". However, as they mature, sensing their separateness from the mother, they seek to become independent subjects and take recourse to paternal images and patriarchal behaviors with the hope of eliminating any possible further "undifferentiated/psychotic fusion" with the mother as they feel threatened by it. According to psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, the rejection and fear of the maternal image, in females, leads them to reject their own femininity. Tricarico hoped that porn becomes a place where men discard patriarchal antics, women embrace the sacred aspects, and audience incorporate porn as a joyful experience for the body – a genuine form of play that helps them approach the non-differentiated state. In being with other, we differentiate ourselves, and experience jouissance whilst becoming a unit being.
When a sexual shaming event occurs, the person attributes causation to oneself resulting in self condemnation, and experience feelings of sadness, loneliness, anger, unworthiness, and rejection, along with a perceived judgment of their self by others. In this mental landscape, a fear arises that ones sexual self needs to be hidden. This psychological process initiates and fuels further shame and lowers one's self-esteem. Sexual shame constricts the "psychic space for free play with one's sexuality". Sexual shame in people begets more shame, and leads to a cycle of powerlessness culminating in deepening negative emotions. Those who tend to feel shame easily are found to be at greater risk for depression and anxiety disorders. According to clinical psychologist Gershen Kaufman, all Sexual disorders are majorly "disorders of shame".
The cause of attributing shame to sexuality is traced back to the biblical interpretation of nakedness being shameful. Much of the Christian mythology presented sexuality as an obstacle to be surmounted in the way of salvation. The major abrahamic religions condemn and consider all forms of nonmarital and nonreproductive sexual pleasure as unacceptable. In Hinduism, bhoga (sexual pleasure) is celebrated as a value in itself and is considered one of the two ways to nirvana, the other being the more demanding yoga. In the Hindu tantric view, watching coitus as an act of Shiva and Shakti is believed to unfurl the Kundalini, and is considered equivalent to one's engaging in maithuna or the fifth M of the panchamakara. A central concept in Hinduism, purushartha, advocates pursuit of the four main goals for happiness: dharma (virtue), artha (riches), kama (pleasure), and moksha (freedom). The pursuit of Kama was elaborated by the sage Vatsyayana in his treatise Kama Sutra, which states that sexual pleasure and food are essential for the well-being of the body, and on both of them depend virtue and prosperity. Food, despite causing indigestion sometimes, would still be consumed regularly, and so it must be with pleasure, which must be pursued with caution while eliminating unwanted or harmful effects. As no one abstains from cooking food worrying about beggars who ask for it, or restrain from sowing wheat fearing animals that destroy the crop, similarly, instructs Vatsyayana, that men and women acquire knowledge of Kama by the time they reach youth and pursue it even though dangers exist; and those who become accomplished in Dharma, Artha, and Kama would attain highest happiness in this world and hereafter.
According to the Buddha, happiness is of two types: one derived from "domestic life" and the other from "monastic life", and between the two, monastic kind is "superior". As a result of the Buddha's effective advocacy for monasticism, in Buddhist communities, marriage and divorce remained civil matters and never acquired sacremental significance. Counsel over sex life for householders was minimal, while for the monks it was extensive as in Vinaya since all sexual behaviors were meant to be suppressed for the sake of enlightenment. The early Buddhist texts castigated women as detrimental beings. The Buddha himself said often that a woman's body is "a vessel of impurity, full of stinking filth. It is like a rotten pit ... like a toilet, with nine holes pouring all sorts of filth." Once when it came to his notice that a monk, Suddina, transgressed celibacy with his wife for the sake of progeny, the Buddha chided him saying, "It were better for you, foolish man, that your male organ should enter the mouth of a terrible and poisonous snake, than that it should enter a woman." Per the Buddha, all sexual desires are incompatible with enlightenment. In Buddhism, people who even derive pleasure from watching others engage in sexual activity were relegated as pandaka (pusillanimous). The Buddha said sexuality is a fetter that must be evaded completely and men who engage with it are "impure" and will not be freed from "old age". After the Buddha died in old age, subsequent generations of Buddhists resolved their problematic attitudes towards sex by accommodating different views.
According to Indonesia's foremost Islamic preacher, Abdullah Gymnastiar, shame is a noble emotion commanded in the Quran and was held high by Muhammad, who had been quoted as saying "Faith is compiled of seventy branches... and shame is one of them." To cultivate shame in Muslims, their sexual gaze needs to be checked, as unchecked gaze is believed to be the door through which Satan enters and soils the heart. In 2006, when anti-pornography protests erupted in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, over the publication of the inaugural Indonesian edition of PlayboyAbdullah called for a legislation to ban pornography and embarked on a mission to shroud the state with a sense of shame, giving the slogan "the more shameful, the more faithful". During these protests, Indonesia's foremost Islamic newspaper, Republika, published daily front-page editorials which featured a logo of the word pornografi crossed out with a red X. The Jakarta office of Playboy Indonesia was ransacked by the members of Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam or FPI), and bookstore owners were threatened not to sell any issue of the magazine. Consequently, in December 2008, Indonesian lawmakers signed an anti-pornography bill into law with overwhelming political support.
Highly religious people are more likely to support policies against pornography such as censorship. Ironically, regions with highly religious and conservative people were found to search for more pornography online. Religious people are prone to having obsessive thoughts regarding sin and punishment by God over their pornography use causing them to feel ashamed, and perceive themselves to have pornography addiction while also suffering from OCD related symptoms. A study of sexually active religious people found those who are highly spiritually matured have less shame, while those not spiritually matured have high shame.
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