(AgapePress) - According to a recent study of Internet pornography, a record number of people in England are downloading online porn. The findings have prompted concerns regarding the effect of pornography on both adults and children.

As summarized by the Daily Mail, an online newspaper in England, the study by Nielsen/NetRatings revealed that:

• "More than nine million men, almost 40% of the adult male population, logged on to sex websites last year, more than four times as many as the estimated two million in 2000."
• "The number of women downloading Internet porn soared 30% to 1.4 million."
• "[M]en and women who visited such sites spent 40 minutes on average each month looking at images."
• "One in four men aged 25 to 49 -- around 2.5 million -- had viewed online hard-core images in the past month alone."

This addiction to adult websites could easily jump-start a demand for illegal child porn. More than half of all children are being exposed to adult images while online, and Internet porn is partially to blame for 40 percent of relationship problems between couples. Many see the increased downloads as fuel for the adult movie market.

For example, Britain now offers 6,500 adult movie titles, and British censors recently passed a total of 28 R18 movies within a week as compared to 25 for the whole year of 2000. [ Editor's note: According to the British Board of Film Classification, R18-rated films are to be shown only in specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sex shops, and to adults of not less than 18 years. Films with this rating may not be supplied by mail order, says the BBFC. ]

This article, printed with permission, appears in the September 2006 issue of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.

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