I couldn't find the stat I was really looking for. About a year ago, in the US, women became something like 51.2% of Internet users. I thought I read that in the Washington Post, but it really could have been anywhere.
Much of that growth is reflected in the stat I did find--women are a substantial majority of new users. The same study indicated that the average age of Internet users was also growing, and not in the obviously meaningless way you described. The proportion of adults over 50 who used the net was growing, for example.
Is it porn and unethical when you don't like it, and erotic literature or art when you like it?
Are sexual images or descriptions ever ethical? If an artist is paid well for a sexy sculpture, or an art gallery owner is paid for selling it, are they unethical?
I'm not saying there's no such thing as unethical porn--all the participants should be adults who've consented to what they're doing. But it isn't sexual imagery per se that is ethically troubling, is it?
Guppy06 is wrong--porn's not growing any more than anythine else online. According to the Online Computer Library Center, the share of sites on the net that are porn was the same in 1998 and 2000 (2.3% of web sites), and dropped noticably in 1999 (1.9%).
I suspect porn probably peaked as share-of-sites five ir six years ago, when the net was mostly used by horny geekboydom, and not many other people.
The number of horny geekboys on the net has probably stayed close to the same, but women are now the majority of US Internet users, and the average age of net users is up too. (Can't find that stat.)
Slashdot Mirror
Much of that growth is reflected in the stat I did find--women are a substantial majority of new users. The same study indicated that the average age of Internet users was also growing, and not in the obviously meaningless way you described. The proportion of adults over 50 who used the net was growing, for example.
I looked again for the study I was thinking of, and did not find it. But I did find a study from 1998 that said, more or less, "this is starting to happen and will happen by 2002." http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/PUBS/OCTNEW S/oc980806.html
Enon
Are sexual images or descriptions ever ethical? If an artist is paid well for a sexy sculpture, or an art gallery owner is paid for selling it, are they unethical?
I'm not saying there's no such thing as unethical porn--all the participants should be adults who've consented to what they're doing. But it isn't sexual imagery per se that is ethically troubling, is it?
Enon
I suspect porn probably peaked as share-of-sites five ir six years ago, when the net was mostly used by horny geekboydom, and not many other people.
The number of horny geekboys on the net has probably stayed close to the same, but women are now the majority of US Internet users, and the average age of net users is up too. (Can't find that stat.)
Enon