MELBOURNE, Australia - According to a study conducted in October by Web-analytic company Hitwise, while social-networking sites have become more popular with Internet users 18 to 24 years old over the past few years, adult sites' popularity with those users has declined.
"I've actually been puzzled by the decrease in visits to the adult-entertainment category over the last two years," said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise and a writer for Time. "Visits to porn sites have dropped from 16.9 percent of all site visits in the U.S. in October 2005 to 11.9 percent as of the week of Oct. 21, a 33 percent decline."
Tancer's findings show that, out of 172 Web categories tracked by Hitwise, social networking now is the top category among surfers 18 to 24 years old. Social-networking sites are followed by search engines and Web-based email, he said, and porn sites are fourth in popularity.
"If you chart the rate of visits to social-networking sites against those to adult sites over the last two years, there appears to be a strong negative correlation," Tancer said, explaining that it seems that visits to adult sites decrease as visits to social networks increase. "It's a leap to say there's a real correlation there, but if there is one, then I'd bet it has everything to do with Gen Y's changing habits. They're too busy chatting with friends to look at online skin."
For Internet users who are 25 and older, Tancer said, search engines are visited most frequently, followed by adult-entertainment sites.
