Recent Statistics on Internet Dangers

Scope of the Problem

• Online pornography is the first consistently successful e-commerce product. (C-Net; 4/28/99)
  
  
• “There are now at least 40,000 porn sites on the World Wide Web and probably thousands more. No one has been able to count them all.” (U.S. News & World Report, 3/27/2000)
  
  
• There are in excess of 40,000 individual URLs containing child pornography, pedophilia and pro-pedophilia content. (Safeguarding Our Children- United Mothers & CyberAngels “Our Kids In Danger List”, 2000)
  
  
• According to Nielson NetRatings, 17.5 million surfers visited porn sites from their homes in January, a 40% increase compared with 4 months earlier. (U.S. News & World Report, 3/27/2000)
  
  
• 30% of all unsolicited e-mails contain pornographic information. (Choose Your Mail.com study, October 1999)
  
  
• Web surfers spent $970 million on access to adult-content sites in 1998 and is expected to rise to more than $3 billion by 2003, according to the research firm Datamonitor. (U.S. News & World Report, 3/27/2000)
  
  
• Cyberporn sales—including videos and accessories ordered online—accounted for 8% of 1999's $18 billion E-commerce pie. (U.S. News & World Report, 3/27/2000)
  
  

YOUTH

• 53% of teens have encountered offensive Web sites that include pornography, hate or violence. Of these, 91% unintentionally found the offensive sites while searching the Web. (Source: Yankelovich Partner survey, The Safe America Foundation; 9/30/99)
  
  
• A May 1999 survey found that 47% of American teens are online – the top two activities being e-mail (83%) and search engines (78%) (Source: Newsweek; 5/10/99)
  
  
• While 75% of parents say they know where children spend time online, the truth about kids' Internet habits show 58% of teens say they have accessed an objectionable Web site: 39 % offensive music, 25% sexual content and 20% violence. (Source: WebSense, USA Today, 10/10-12/99)
  
  
• 62% of parents of teenagers are unaware that their children have accessed objectionable Websites (Source: Yankelovich Partners Study, September 1999)
  
  
• Pornographers disguise their sites (i.e. “stealth” sites) with common brand names, including Disney, Barbie, ESPN, etc., to entrap children. (Cyveillance Study, March 1999)
  
  
• The majority of teenagers' online use occurs at home, right after school, when working parents are not at home. (Arbitron New Media Study, October 1999)
  
  
• Students were most at risk for cybersex compulsions due to a combination of increased access to computers, more private leisure time, & developmental stage characterized by increased sexual awareness & experimentation. Both computer classes & colleges might need to recognize this increased vulnerability and institute new primary prevention strategies. (MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study, 2000)
  
  

ADULTS

• “Cyber-sex is the crack cocaine of sexual addiction”. (Dr. Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute, Washington Times 1/26/2000)
  
  
• Cyber-sex reinforces and normalizes sexual disorders. (Dr. Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute, Washington Times 1/26/2000)
  
  
• Cyber-sex is a public health hazard exploding because very few are recognizing it as such or taking it seriously. (MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study; Associated Press Online, 2/29/2000)
  
  
• 57 million Americans have Internet access. (MSNBC /Stanford/Duquesne Study, 2000)
  
  
• 60% of all web-site visits are sexual in nature. (MSNBC /Stanford/Duquesne Study, Washington Times 1/26/2000)
  
  
• Sex is the #1 searched for topic on the Internet. (Dr. Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute, Washington Times 1/26/2000)
  
  
• 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)
  
  
• At least 200,000 Internet users are hooked on porn sites, X-rated chat rooms or other sexual materials online. (MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study, Associated Press Online, 2/29/2000)
  
  
• MSNBC/Stanford/Duquesne Study, 2000
  • Men prefer visual erotica twice as much as women
  • Women favor chat rooms twice as much as men
  • Women had slightly lower rate of sexually compulsive Internet behavior
  • 70 % keep their habit a secret

CHRISTIAN MEN & SEXUAL BROKENESS

• 17.8% of all "born again" Christian adults (in America) have visited sexually-oriented Websites. (Zogby survey conducted for Focus on the Family, 2000)
  
  
• 63% of men attending “Men, Romance & Integrity Seminars” admit to struggling with porn in the past year. Two-thirds are in church leadership and 10% are pastors. (Pastor's Family Bulletin, Focus on the Family, March 2000)
  
  
• 1 in 7 calls to Focus' Pastoral Care Line is about Internet pornography. (Pastor's Family Bulletin, Focus on the Family, March 2000)

PORNOGRAPHY IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES

• Public libraries have become a breeding ground for the sexual exploitation of children. (Donna Rice Hughes, Senate Hearing Testimony, 3/28/00)
  
  
• “Dangerous Access, 2000 Edition” by librarian David Burt. 452 public libraries reported 2,062 incidents of Internet pornography accessed at libraries
  • 41 cases of child porn being accessed
  • 472 incidents of children accessing pornography
  • 962 incidents of adult's accessing porn
  • 106 incidents of adults exposing children to porn
  • 5 attempts to molest children in libraries