A Literature Review of Studies into the Prevalence and Frequency of Men’s Pornography Use

Abstract

This review aims to provide information on the prevalence and frequency of adult males’ pornography use. It appears, the majority (> 80%) of adult men have accessed pornography at some point, and in the past year (40–70%). Around half of younger men (25 or under) are weekly consumers. Pornography use tapers-off with age. Relatively few (<10%) younger men have accessed violent pornography in the past year. The Internet is the primary method of access. Pornography use is associated with masturbation; use during partnered sex is less common. Differences in consumption rates between heterosexual and gay and bisexual men are discussed.

Keywords:

• Pornography
• sexually explicit material
• men
• prevalence

Notes

1 The exact phrasing used in the article, “Watched sexually explicit videos or DVDs (porn)” (p. 10), implies that this includes viewing videos via the Internet.

2 Websites which mimic YouTube’s format.

3 Since 2002, the GSS has used computer assisted personal interviewing. However, researchers are still typically present while participants complete the survey (Smith et al., 2018).

4 Four of these studies utilised the same dataset (Hald et al., 2013; Rosser et al., 2013; Rosser et al., 2014; Træen, Hald, et al., 2014). Another two studies similarly report on the one dataset (Træen, Noor, et al., 2014; Træen et al., 2015). This is highlighted so as not to give the erroneous impression that similar prevalence figures were observed across multiple unique samples.