Pornography continues as the favorite content of Ecuadorians, the cell phone is the access key

International metrics account for the increase in the consumption of pornographic content around the world and Ecuador is no exception. While these indices had a steep pre-pandemic upward curve, the virus played a key role in causing the numbers to skyrocket, as people are at home longer and can easily access this type of content.

Since 2018, two adult content websites have positioned themselves within the top 10 of the most visited sites in Ecuador. In fact, with a cut-off until August, these sites were on the 2021 list, occupying positions six and seven., according to the report Ecuador digital of the Management Training company. The forecast is that at the end of the year they will also finish in the ranking.

These two pages accumulated 3.521 million visits worldwide last August alone, achieved an average visit duration of 18 minutes and obtained a bounce rate of 24%. “Enviable” numbers for any website, according to web analytics company Semrush.

The main channel of access to these platforms that Ecuadorians and the rest of the inhabitants of the planet have is the mobile phone. This is detailed in a report from Pornhub, the world’s largest sexual content page. Every day 130 million users visit this site.

“Since last year (due to the pandemic) technology has played a more pronounced role in our daily lives, as a source of entertainment and how we communicate with friends, family and co-workers. Very often, it is the same technology that we use to touch ourselves.”Says the report.

84% of all traffic from Pornhub all over the world it is by mobile phones. 80% of that came from smartphones, which saw their share grow 4.7% in 2020. While desktop and laptop traffic dropped to just 15%.

Carlos, 33, likes this type of content. He visits these sites at least four times a week: “The truth is that since I’ve been telecommuting I have increased the consumption of these types of videos,” he says.

Although he adds that it is not necessary to enter these websites to see pornographic content: “I am in a WhatsApp chat with friends from school and there they usually share things (pornographic videos). Of course, if you want to see something more personalized you should go to the web. I almost always use my cell phone ”.

For the psychologist Jorge Escobar, “seeing and enjoying” the activities of others, including sexual ones, has been normal throughout the evolution of man, although now it is more within reach due to access to technology.

Do young people feel pressured to have sex too soon?

“What watching pornography tells us is that it is gratifying to put oneself in the role of another even if one does absolutely nothing and is still. This is part of the social dynamics in which we embody characters through imaginations and I read magazines, I watch videos to live a momentarily pleasant life and have those moments, ”he says.

However, the problem is when the person cannot disconnect from pornography: “There are some people who may occasionally watch porn and not suffer any significant side effects, but many people, including teenagers and tweens with highly plastic brains, find themselves compulsively using the high-speed internet to watch porn specific to their tastes, which disconnects them from their sexuality in real life “said psychologist Philip Zimbardo to the portal Psychology Today.

Although science is still taking its first steps in investigating the neurological consequences of pornography consumption, there is evidence of the impact on mental health and sexual activity of its users.

The brain responds to sexual stimulation by releasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter mainly associated with the anticipation of reward that also acts on the programming of memories and information in the brain. When the explosions of pleasure and reward are unnatural, they generate powerful levels of habituation in the brain, also unnatural.

This is why porn producers are going one step further by introducing new and stronger themes, as their customers are developing a tolerance for regular content., indicates a study by the Max Plank Institute for Human Development in Berlin.

Hence, on adult sites there are categories such as “forced”, “domination”, “dominatrix”. In addition, of the steps, that is to say, stepsister, stepmother O stepfather, which in Spanish means stepsister, stepmother and stepfather, respectively.

Access to smartphone it has also been key. In Ecuador there are 14.8 million mobile lines and most of the 14.25 million users with internet access in the country surf through a cell phone.

Android devices are the most used to view pornography in the country and throughout South America, says Pornhub. Android users are 95% more likely to view sexual content associated with “virtual reality”, “hentai”, “cosplay” or “cartoons”.

These categories are being promoted by the new generations. The majority of users who currently view pornography are between the ages of 18 and 44. In addition, it indicates Pornhub, In this time of pandemic, searches were made on its website for the first time with the words “covid”, “corona” and “coronavirus”.

And to respond to this demand, the adult content industry began producing sex videos with actors wearing masks or pretending to be “quarantined.” This was also included in animated pornographic audiovisuals.

Another category that is currently gaining momentum is ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) sexual videos. That is, men and women only making whispers, slight noises or friction.

All pornographic pages, including the most visited in Ecuador, have a space for this kind of audiovisuals. Platforms call this type of content “sensory porn.”

Cybercriminals on the lookout for users of pornographic websites

According to a study by the cybersecurity company Kaspesky Lab, banking Trojans disguised as porn video players rank second among the most widespread types of malware powered by pornography.

They are followed by malware with access root and the ransomware. The latter, in many cases, uses tactics of scareware– A malicious program on the PC that locks the screen and displays a message indicating that illegal content has been detected and thus the device has been locked. To unlock it, the victim must pay a “ransom.” However, sites like Pornhub They claim to be safe and that they always “work” to “improve” their security.

Kaspersky research also states that 19% of Latin American men, including Ecuadorians, admitted to viewing adult content on their work computer in 2019.

According to the survey, those leading the way in this area are Peruvians (26%), followed by Brazilians (24%) and Mexicans and Argentines, with 19%. Meanwhile, those who least claim to look at photos and videos of a sexual nature in the office are Chileans (14%) and Colombians (12%). (I)