Patterns of consumption of cyber-pornography amongst women in Mumbai

Abstract

Introduction: Cyber pornography refers to sexually explicit material on the Internet that is primarily designed to produce sexual arousal in viewers. Research reveals a large number of male consumers for pornography however; recently a growth in the number of female viewership has also been reported by studies. The aim of this research study was to examine the consumption of cyber pornography among women living in the city of Mumbai. The research questions of the study involved exploring the number of women who view cyber pornography along with the association of emotional distress, access efforts and addictive patterns with viewing online pornography. Methodology: A sample of 150 women between the ages of 18 to 25 years was chosen for the study. The present study utilizes the Cyber Pornography Use Inventory-9 (CPUI-9) as a tool to understand the consumption of pornography under 3 dimensions -perceived compulsivity, access efforts and emotional distress. A Google form of the survey was sent to the participants via email and WhatsApp. The data was analyzed by using statistical tools such as descriptive statistics and graphical representations with respect to the research questions of the study. Results: Very few (4 out of 150) women were addicted to pornography and an approximate percentage of 41% did not view pornography online. A highlighting result was that associated to emotional distress among women, as 14.7 percent of women reported feeling ashamed and 8 percent said that they felt sick and depressed after viewing cyber pornography. Future implications and suggestions for future research were discussed. Conclusion: Results showed that normal obsessions occur to a great extent in the general (non-clinical) population and are mostly overlooked or left unattended. With over 50 participants scoring above the criterion score of 80 (as mentioned), it shows that the OC phenomena is considerably prevalent and can be explored further. The future implications for the study are immense, since such a research has not been undertaken in the Indian context.