New Media and Pornography

This study examines the impact of new technologies on the production and consumption of pornographic material. The main focus is on how new media technologies have contributed to developments in the industry of pornography, the expansion of the sex business, and to new forms of pornographic consumption. The paper is based on the available data on pornography consumption on the web and a theoretical discussion of the literature on the impact of new technologies on people lives and behaviours. New media technologies have allowed more people to have a voice in their community and in the world in general, to skip censorships, to give visibility to the hidden, to communicate injustice, inequalities, etc. However, this technology has also allowed the exploitation of men, women and children who are excluded from this technological revolution, by those who have the knowledge and the economic power to exploit them. This kind of exploitation becomes immediately visible when one analyses the sex business, and the impact that the Internet has had on its development and on the exploitation of weak bodies.