Sex With Your Mobile Phone

from the seems-a-bit-personal,-doesn't-it? dept

We were just discussing the many reasons why mobile porn might not really catch on (the main one being that TV and internet porn caught on because they let otherwise embarrassed people enjoy the porn in the privacy of their own homes, while mobile takes it out into the world, where it may be less appealing — not to even mention the tiny screen). However, with a counter point come the folks at Google. With Google making a big push to move into the mobile space, the company has been looking into what people are searching for on their mobile phones. Turns out, indeed, it’s all about sex. Mobile phone searchers are much more likely to be hunting down porn than desktop surfers. In fact, 20% of all mobile search queries are for adult content vs. 8.5% on the desktop (which, by the way, inadvertently lets slip the percentage of porn searches on Google that Larry Page tried not to reveal to Time Magazine just recently). The Googlers’ explanation for this: “people regard their phones as intensely personal devices,” which, frankly, seems like a little more than we want to know. Perhaps we really have misjudged the libidinous nature of those on the go — or perhaps there’s some odd correlation between early adopters and porn on the go. Oddly, though, PDA users are a bit more chaste — with only 5% searching for adult content. I guess people view their PDAs “just as friends,” rather than with the intimacy of a mobile phone.


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Comments on “Sex With Your Mobile Phone”

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52 Comments
Commander Koen says:

@work

It’s quite simple, if you use google on your desktop at work you obviously don’t search for porn.

Your boss doesn’t have acces to what you’re doing on your mobile phone. So if you want to look at porn at work, you go to the toilet where you can look in private.

This also explains why people don’t use there pda for porn. They leave ther pda on their desks when they go to the toilet, but take their phones with them.

A technology journalist says:

Re: It's all about practicality

First of all, I own all three devices (PC, PDA, mobile), and keep porn in all of them… and I’m female. 😛

Comparing all three, I surf porn most on PC, but it becomes a lesser % if compared to mobile phone surfing.
Eg.
Surf porn 1 hour out of 10 hours of PC surfing.
Surf porn 45 mins out of 1 hour mobile surfing.

Which one has higher % then? Obviously mobile. But that doesn’t mean people surf less on PC.

They got it all wrong from their assumptions. It’s not about mobile phones being more public or private. It’s about practicality.

Seriously, if you were to surf on your mobile, the small screen makes it more effective for entertainment than work. If you want to do work-type surfing, you do it on your PC or PDA where it’s faster to get your job done.
Sides, it’s easier to carry along your mobile phone to show off to friends than a PC.

giafly says:

A more disturbing theory

…is that cellphone users are much younger than PC users. From an agit-prop site with “brain pictures of your kids while they talk on their cell phones”:

“A recent survey conducted in the UK shows that 87 percent of 11- to 16-year-olds own mobile phones, and that 40 percent of them spend 15 minutes or more each day talking on their cell phones. Even more disturbing, 70 percent of these children said they would not change their cell phone use even if advised to by the Government. It’s predicted that by the year 2006 there will be over 2 billion cell phone users in the world ? 500 million of them will be children … The long-term effects of damage inflicted today won’t be known for years to come!”

Sam Kelly says:

No Subject Given

mobile porn opens up all kinds of doors for kids who want to be secretive with their pornographic activities. As a 9th grader myself, I have observed that the 90% of owners of sony PSP’s who are under the age of twenty primairly use them for porn viewing. The size of the things allows them to be concealed easily. Additionally, it is very difficult for other people to see whats on your screen… The same applies for kids who have palm pilots with wireless or bluetooth. Clearly there is a market in mobile porn. I do not believe, however, that the whole “users being embarrased” thing applies in this case. The whole point of mobile porn is its easier to hide it then it is when your on a PC.

TJ says:

Re: Sam Kelly's post etc.

What intrigues me about Sam’s post is that if truly written by a 9th grader, it was more maturely and clearly written than many common responses from alleged adults. Not being in the younger generation I hadn’t thought about how handheld porn might be easier to conceal from parents than trying to use a desktop PC, but there is some sense in that. It would probably be tougher to hide the boner than the porn.

At least for now parents might also just not think about porn on a handheld. While the tiny screen might seem to make it pointless, I remember lots of trading in porn back when the state-of-the-art PC display was 320×200 pixels in 256 colors, and it looked like crap.

Oh, and as for the other post (that may have been trolling) about it being fine to use a laptop in the toilet, that is so nasty. The reason people are supposed to wash their hands after using the restroom is because of fecal bacteria. It isn’t even sanitary to take a book into a bathroom stall, let alone a hard-to-clean thoroughly several-hundred-dollar durable device full of little nooks and crannies for germs to thrive in. Ick… Maybe that’s why I hate the idea of using someone else’s laptop, whether they might occasionally take it in the toilet for a wank or just the usual bathroom business!

m0u5y says:

No Subject Given

it’s that or them taking naked pictures of their girlfriends and showing them to everyone while a bit tipsy.
it seems that plenty of young men, and older… don’t give a rat’s pooper about being embarrassed. You don’t find noise-makers in the boy’s bathroom, do you? I can immagine a heck of a lot of these mobile porn owners showin’ off their collection to the gang and what not. and anyway, you don’t worry about all the spyware and stuff you get on a desktop. then again, if I were a guy I would have the gonads to just rent it at the video store.

dani says:

Re: Re: grow up

“women were quite a bit more likely to look at it.”

Did a quick google search. I’m a little suprised, but women still don’t look at porn as much as guys.

Of the 500 people surveyed, just under a quarter of men admitted to looking at pornography at work, compared to 12 per cent of women. But only 17 per cent of men said that they ‘intentionally’ watched porn, compared to 11 per cent of women.

Stoolio says:

Re: Re: Re: grow up

Women look at porn as much as men. They just lie like hell about it just like they do the number of sex partners they have had.
I dl porn on my new cell phone when I moved into my new house and did not have internet access yet. I felt guilty later.
I had a guy come into my bar one night and showed me porn pics he had taken from a dvd with his cell phone. Then the moron tried to convince everyone in the bar it was a picture of him and his latest lady.
Porn in any fashion will always sell if people think they are getting away with something.

Newob says:

Re: Re: Re: grow up

Of the 500 people surveyed, just under a quarter of men admitted to looking at pornography at work, compared to 12 per cent of women. But only 17 per cent of men said that they ‘intentionally’ watched porn, compared to 11 per cent of women.

Yeah but 98% of women were lying and 99% of men were lying, and 117.4% of statistics is bullshit.

Ben says:

Maybe it's the fine print.

Just a thought. You can change your desktop, your laptop, or your pda as often as you change your socks if you like, but a cell phone is a commitment (2 years, early termination fees apply). Maybe this 20% is the portion of the population that doesn’t have a problem entering a committed relationship. I mean, even when all others may crash on you, you know that cellphone will be there on your nightstand in the morning, blinking its little signal strength indicator light (Extended warranty extra, service availability subject to geographic locale). Not everyone is up for the emotionless physicality of a one night stand, when they have the opportunity to spend meaningful moments with someone with whom they find security.

Of course, that would put pre-paid service phones on the outskirts of acceptability, except in portions of Nevada.

JayFish says:

Mobile Pron and the law

I?m a bit sketchy on the details, but some SUV in California was playing a porn on one of those screens in the back seat. Some little old lady in a car behind them complained to the police and the drive was stopped and fined for a charge like ?Public exhibition of restricted materials? or some such. So your phone porn could get you a ticket if viewed in a public place.

Mark Featherstone (user link) says:

No Subject Given

Did anyone really think it would be otherwise?
Give people long boring rides to work on the bus or tedious desk jobs where their web use is monitored… I’m not surprised that people turn to their phones for gratification.

With all the types of Rich Media phones can handle theses days it’s natural. For all ‘mainstream’ content’s hype, when people hear that they can get video on their mobiles I’m not surprised 20% of them think of porn first and watching CNN Headlines a distant second.

It’s certainly a combination of both convenience and privacy thats driving these figures though. From our experience, customers seem to be ‘friskiest’ in the evenings. But, unsurprisingly enough, the two other busiest times of the day are the journey to work hours and the lunch hour slot. I doubt many people would consider carrying their computer into the staff toilets with them, their mobile phones seem to be the device of choice!

Mark
Foneheat

daniel says:

i agree with u

ur right about 2 things the female performers and the sad little boys who do that to get their rocks off being a guy myself some guys out there are sad to keep it hidden and not open about it ive got pornography and im not ashamed but i hardly ever watch it cause i dont have the time so i have sold mine and dont worry

Steven hanson (user link) says:

“women were quite a bit more likely to look at it.”

Did a quick google search. I’m a little suprised, but women still don’t look at porn as much as guys.

Of the 500 people surveyed, just under a quarter of men admitted to looking at pornography at work, compared to 12 per cent of women. But only 17 per cent of men said that they ‘intentionally’ watched porn, compared to 11 per cent of women.

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