Porn 2.0: What Happens When Free Porn Meets Social Networking

By Sunny Freeman, The Tyee. Posted July 10, 2007.

She's naked and posing suggestively, but otherwise she doesn't resemble the average Playboy model. Yet this "ex-girlfriend" has been viewed by 138,629 people on YouPorn, the new, German-based Internet aggregator of amateur-generated porn.

She's not the only one to have a former lover post her most intimate moments for the world to google. There are over 250 ex-girlfriends currently featured among the tens of thousands of sex videos on YouPorn.

About 15 per cent of women have knowingly made sex videos, according to a recent poll in Cosmopolitan magazine. If true, that's how many are at risk of having an ex post x-rated files of them on a porn-sharing site.

Unlike Paris Hilton, the average YouPorn star probably won't become famous, except unwittingly to his or her next potential boss or partner. And it's likely he or she will suffer a loss of privacy that could hurt her reputation, relationship and career.

As sites like YouPorn and PornoTube that mesh community aspects of social networking with completely free-of-charge pornography rise in popularity, so too do the associated copyright and privacy infringements.

Right now, the law is lagging behind in redressing the harm done to victims of "porn 2.0."

And with the rapid expansion of this new technology, concerns over the impending social, economic and legal implications are probably the only thing uniting conservative lawmakers and traditional pornographers.

The problem with free

Every day, there are 266 new porn sites on the Net. Every second, 28,258 users are viewing porn.

New aggregators like YouPorn and PornoTube make it easier for a new audience to find free Internet porn, previously often only accessible to "techies" who knew how to use often illegal file sharing methods like Bit Torrent.

"I never get free porn. I'm not good with all that Internet stuff, the passwords, the searching. I just buy it," said one 43 year-old Vancouver man an interview for this article. But he said he would go to YouPorn instead if it was just all in one spot and free, and says that due to this technology, he will almost certainly view more porn than before.

X-rated' Facebook

He's not attracted to the social networking side of YouPorn, but many people are. One of the best things about these YouTube-like services, says an avid fan, is they allow you to both chat with other posters online and read their profiles. "It's like Facebook with an x-rated edge."

Porn 2.0 sites mesh tagged content, discussion groups and user comments and ratings to form a community where users can easily explore and share different fetishes and fantasies.

Without that community aspect, the allure of YouPorn diminishes, says Fredrick Lane, author of Obscene Profits, a study of the success of online pornography. "It's easier for voyeurs to indulge in fantasy and exhibitionists to expose themselves without violating the law. It's like an electronic peeping Tom."

There are even several Facebook groups for fans of online porn. Members of the PornoTube Appreciation Society, for example, post messages like "Work is going down the tube! The PornoTube!"

Porn goes democratic

Free porn on the web is nothing new. But aggregating it into one searchable database a la YouTube is. That free porn revolution highlights the democratization of sexuality, says Lane.

When porn first emerged in mainstream society, he says, a few magazines like Hustler and Playboy determined social norms of sexual attractiveness: "5'10" and blonde." Now, fans have access to a wide variety of sexual preferences and experiences.

But not everyone in the porn world is turned on by recent developments. In fact, the ease of posting porn online is causing a panic among some adult film producers, who spend big budgets on big stars, only to have those posted and viewed for free, or only to see viewers turn to free, amateur porn instead.

Initially, the Internet increased pornography sales, by providing users with easy and anonymous access. U.S. revenue reached a record $2.84 billion in 2006.

But after years of fairly steady increases, sales and rentals of porn videos dipped from $4.28 billion in 2005 to $3.62 billion last year, according to estimates by AVN, an industry trade publication.

See more stories tagged with: youporn, pornotube, porn 2.0

Sunny Freeman is on staff for The Tyee.

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