Porn sites are more popular than social networking sites —at least in the UK

Here's a dose of the naked truth for some netizens: porn sites get more Internet traffic than social networking sites, at least in the United Kingdom.

 

A report on the UK's The Guardian based this on figures from SimilarWeb, a Tel Aviv-based web measurement company that tracks online clicks rather than total volume of traffic.

 

"Traffic on adult sites represents a huge portion of what people use the internet for, not just in the UK but around the world. It is astonishing to see that adult sites are more popular in the UK than all social networks combined," it quoted Daniel Buchuk, head of brand and strategy at SimilarWeb, as saying.

 

SimilarWeb watches the activity of people who have installed one of its browser plugins.

 

Buchuk said around 1 percent of Internet populations in most western countries use its plugins so a reliable estimate can be made.

 

Citing the data, The Guardian said 8.5 percent of clicks in June were on legal pornography sites.

 

But The Guardian said this pales in comparison to Germany, where clicks to porn sites account for up to 12.5 percent of traffic; and Spain, where it accounts for 9.6 percent.

 

Still, the UK is above the world average of 7.7 percent, and just slightly ahead of the US, where traffic to adult sites makes up 8.3 percent of clicks.

 

"People don't just 'stumble' upon adult content. More than 8 percent of Google UK searches led to adult sites in the past three months," Buchuk said.

 

This was eclipsed only by "arts and entertainment" sites such as video-sharing site YouTube, the figures showed.

 

YouTube got 9.5 percent of clicks while search engines got 15.7 percent, The Guardian said.

 

On the other hand, The Guardian said the figures do not include traffic from mobile phones, or illegal searches for child abuse.

 

UK crackdown

 

Interestingly, the data came as UK Prime Minister David Cameron tasked Internet service providers to ensure within 18 months that those signing up for Internet service should choose whether to opt in or out of being able to access pornographic sites.

 

"The hardest part for the government, which is what companies like Facebook or Tumblr are currently struggling with, will be to draw the line on what gets banned," Buchuk said. — TJD, GMA News