Pornography in Usenet: A Study of 9,800 Randomly Selected Images

It is concluded that an increasing percentage of pornographic images in Usenet come from commercially oriented sources and that commercial sources are more likely to post explicit images.

Abstract

This paper builds on an earlier study by Mehta and Plaza, from 1997, by analyzing 9,800 randomly selected images taken from 32 Usenet newsgroups between July 1995 and July 1996. The study concludes that an increasing percentage of pornographic images in Usenet come from commercially oriented sources and that commercial sources are more likely to post explicit images. Pornographic images containing themes that fall under most obscenity statutes are more likely to be posted by noncommercial sources. By examining the themes most commonly found in the sample, it is concluded that the vast majority of images contain legally permissible content. Only a small fraction of images contain pedophilic, bestiality, co-prophilic/urophilic, amputation and mutilation, and necrophilic themes.