When the internet was first created, and after the first-ever media was uploaded to the web, some people started wondering when will the first online nudity happen.
Then it was the Usenet newsgroups that provided the early way for sharing adult images over the narrow bandwidth in the 1990s.
But because of the network restrictions of the time, the images that were mostly created from scanned adult magazines, had to be encoded as ASCII text, to then be broken down into several parts before being posted.
And as for downloading the, the files should be reassembled before being decoded back to an image.
Since that time, growth in the number of adult images grew tremendously. But when it comes to quality, they were very restricted.
Fast forward, with connectivity spreading to almost every part of the world, even in remote places, the web has been populated with numerous services and websites.
The internet has become the first place for many people to look for information, and entertainment, and also pornography.
With faster internet and more powerful computers and servers, people have ventured beyond low-quality photos and short seconds-long videos of dial-up connection, to high-quality adult entertainments that can be streamed and even engaged with, through broadband internet.
And here. three major adult entertainment websites, Xvideos, XNXX, and Pornhub have traffic that exceeds Netflix.
According to website rankings compiled by Fasthosts, the three websites were only bested by Google, YouTube, Facebook, Baidu, Twitter, Instagram and Yahoo!.
Xvideos and Pornhub receive an average of 3.14 and 2.85 trillion monthly visitors respectively. This surpassed Amazon (2.29 trillion), Netflix (2.21 trillion) and Reddit (1.34 trillion).
“Whilst our need for acquiring knowledge, connecting with others, and sharing information is a common motivation for our internet usage, there are other reasons we choose to hang out online,” noted Fasthosts.
“It seems people are bypassing the Netflix and heading straight for the chill.”
Read: Learning How Adult Websites Keep People Hooked For Hours With Its Web Design
While most people may not realized to what extent online adult entertainment has dominated the internet, many other internet users may not want to admit that they have encountered links to those kind of websites, even when visiting normal websites.
Many of these people may visit those website from time to time.
Evidence suggests that traffic to adult entertainment websites may have skyrocketed even higher in the months amid 'COVID-19' coronavirus pandemic, where people are forced to remain indoors, with many others are kept away from their partner or spouse.
According to the Pornhub Insights blog, traffic to the website increased dramatically.
As it is known, the site receives 120 million visitors every day. And during coronavirus lockdown, the website saw an average rise of viewers by 5.7%.
And at its peak which was on March 25, Pornhub traffic was 23.1% higher than the usual average and remained between 10-20% above average throughout May.
The increase in the number of visitors is mainly due to many people who spend their time in on their smartphones, tablets or laptops while working, or to spend free time while quarantining themselves at home.
So indeed, internet has made porn more accessible and popular than ever. As a matter of fact, internet porn has even killed Playboy, one of the very first that started the adult eroticism lifestyle in the media industry.
Further reading: Netflix Loses Subscribers For The First Time In More Than 10 Years