Skip to main content

Govt effort to "discourage" pornography in reverse gear: India a top country with high porn viewership

Top nations attracting porn sites
By Jag Jivan 
Adult website Pornhub, one of the many pornographic sites, which were sought to be banned by the Government of India in August 2015 through an order of the Department of Telecom, has claimed that India has the world’s third largest population viewing pornography, next only to the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Indian ban ordered the service providers to block access to 857 websites hosting pornographic content. But, as is known, the Government of India could predict the scale and level of outrage that the order unleashed, as influential sections of Indians, belonging to mainly Internet-friendly middle classes, heaped criticism and scorn on the move. The ban had to be withdrawn.
In its controversial annual report for 2015, the "popular" site says, “The United States remains at the top, with American visitors accounting for about 41% of our overall traffic, followed by the United Kingdom in at second place. India knocks Canada out of third place with a one rank position gain” over the last year.
Pointing towards the the worldwide average length for a visit to the Pornhub site, the report says, it “was 9 minutes and 16 seconds”, adding, “Over the course of 2015, this figure extended by 4 seconds, with the average session duration now clocking in at 9:20.”
It adds, “The countries with the lengthiest average visit durations also each added a few seconds their times. The Philippines remain in the top spot with visits lasting a leisurely 12:45 on average, which is 5 seconds longer than last year. The US added 11 seconds to their average time on site. India added over a minute to their now 9:30 average since last year”, the report states.
Time spent per visit on porn site: Top 10 countries
Comments the report, “The world watched a lot of porn this year. In 2015 alone, we streamed 75GB of data a second, which translates to enough porn to fill the storage in around 175 million 16GB iPhones”, though adding, “This indicates that most people are not ‘addicted’ in a way that they spend all of their time on porn, or doing little else with their time.”
It further states, “eMarketer reports that we are now spending an average of 5.6 hours online per day, up from 5.3 in 2014. The countries with the lengthiest average visit durations also each added a few seconds their times.”
The report contends that the top searches in India for the Pornhub site included Indian bhabhi, Indian actress, Indian wife, Indian college, Indian aunty, desi and Indian teen, among others. However, it notes some “interesting changes” over the last one year.
“While the vast majority of top, gaining and relative searches here contain ‘Indian,’ search terms ‘Japanese’ and ‘Indonesia’ both made some impressive leaps to get into the top 10 list with 14 and 47 place jumps respectively”, the report says, adding, Bollywood actress Sunny Leone was “the top searched” porn star.
Pointing towards what adversely affects port traffic, the report says, “Traffic dips by about 39% on Christmas Eve worldwide, with the biggest drops having taken place in France and Belgium. Smaller but still significant drops are noted on Christmas Day and Easter Sunday.”
It interestingly adds, “Romania’s May Day celebrations brings traffic down by 18% while the beginning of Ramadan caused traffic to come down by 15% in India. Argentina‘s National Day on October 12th and Day of respect for cultural diversity on May 25th each brought traffic 14% below average in the country.”

Comments

TRENDING

From Kerala to Bangladesh: Lynching highlights deep social faultlines

By A Representative   The recent incidents of mob lynching—one in Bangladesh involving a Hindu citizen and another in Kerala where a man was killed after being mistaken for a “Bangladeshi”—have sparked outrage and calls for accountability.  

What Sister Nivedita understood about India that we have forgotten

By Harasankar Adhikari   In the idea of a “Vikshit Bharat,” many real problems—hunger, poverty, ill health, unemployment, and joblessness—are increasingly overshadowed by the religious contest between Hindu and Muslim fundamentalisms. This contest is often sponsored and patronised by political parties across the spectrum, whether openly Hindutva-oriented, Islamist, partisan, or self-proclaimed secular.

When a city rebuilt forgets its builders: Migrant workers’ struggle for sanitation in Bhuj

Khasra Ground site By Aseem Mishra*  Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is not a privilege—it is a fundamental human right. This principle has been unequivocally recognised by the United Nations and repeatedly affirmed by the Supreme Court of India as intrinsic to the right to life and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution. Yet, for thousands of migrant workers living in Bhuj, this right remains elusive, exposing a troubling disconnect between constitutional guarantees, policy declarations, and lived reality.

Aravalli at the crossroads: Environment, democracy, and the crisis of justice

By  Rajendra Singh*  The functioning of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has undergone a troubling shift. Once mandated to safeguard forests and ecosystems, the Ministry now appears increasingly aligned with industrial interests. Its recent affidavit before the Supreme Court makes this drift unmistakably clear. An institution ostensibly created to protect the environment now seems to have strayed from that very purpose.

'Festive cheer fades': India’s housing market hits 17‑quarter slump, sales drop 16% in Q4 2025

By A Representative   Housing sales across India’s nine major real estate markets fell to a 17‑quarter low in the October–December period of 2025, with overall absorption dropping 16% year‑on‑year to 98,019 units, according to NSE‑listed analytics firm PropEquity. This marks the weakest quarter since Q3 2021, despite the festive season that usually drives demand. On a sequential basis, sales slipped 2%, while new launches contracted by 4%.  

Safety, pay and job security drive Urban Company gig workers’ protest in Gurugram

By A Representative   Gig and platform service workers associated with Urban Company have stepped up their protest against what they describe as exploitative and unsafe working conditions, submitting a detailed Memorandum of Demands at the company’s Udyog Vihar office in Gurugram. The action is being seen as part of a wider and growing wave of dissatisfaction among gig workers across India, many of whom have resorted to demonstrations, app log-outs and strikes in recent months to press for fair pay, job security and basic labour protections.

India’s universities lag global standards, pushing students overseas: NITI Aayog study

By Rajiv Shah   A new Government of India study, Internationalisation of Higher Education in India: Prospects, Potential, and Policy Recommendations , prepared by NITI Aayog , regrets that India’s lag in this sector is the direct result of “several systemic challenges such as inadequate infrastructure to provide quality education and deliver world-class research, weak industry–academia collaboration, and outdated curricula.”

The rise of the civilizational state: Prof. Pratap Bhanu Mehta warns of new authoritarianism

By A Representative   Noted political theorist and public intellectual Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta delivered a poignant reflection on the changing nature of the Indian state today, warning that the rise of a "civilizational state" poses a significant threat to the foundations of modern democracy and individual freedom. Delivering the Achyut Yagnik Memorial Lecture titled "The Idea of Civilization: Poison or Cure?" at the Ahmedabad Management Association, Mehta argued that India is currently witnessing a self-conscious political project that seeks to redefine the state not as a product of a modern constitution, but as an instrument of an ancient, authentic civilization.

Why experts say replacing MGNREGA could undo two decades of rural empowerment

By A Representative   A group of scientists, academics, civil society organisations and field practitioners from India and abroad has issued an open letter urging the Union government to reconsider the repeal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and to withdraw the newly enacted Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025. The letter, dated December 27, 2025, comes days after the VB–G RAM G Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 16 and subsequently approved by both Houses of Parliament, formally replacing the two-decade-old employment guarantee law.