One of the greatest technological developments in the twentieth century is the Internet. The net as it is called functions without an overseer and central figure. Business and moneymaking opportunities on the Internet provide a source of income for some individuals and help supplement the salaries of others. The largest and most profitable industry to develop in the 1990’s is pornography. Statistics for the October 1999 compiled by goto search engine for 3 word searches; sex was searched for 609842 times. The top 14 searched was all done over 10 000 times. 7 of the top ten searches reports at searchwords.com for the month of October was, pornographic related. Pornography continues to thrive online due to the large amount of money it generates, the curiosity of humans and also because it can be obtained in the privacy of a users home.

The pornographic industry has the potential to make some people extremely wealthy, even millionaires. Some individuals make in excess of $50 0000 a month usually spending less that 5 hours a week. Danni’s Hard Drive, an adult site offers its services to about 25000 members for a membership fee of only $19.95 a month. Current members alone accumulates $498750 a month just by paying their membership fee (Leland John 61). This money made is mainly profit as most of the cost of running the sites occurs in the initial start up stage and is easily taken care if the site is successful. The monthly figure for the site is a lot of money however this is not an isolated case as many others in the pornography industry sites make literally thousands of dollars monthly easily.
The idea of being able to make large sums or money with little effort in the pornography industry attracts many persons to develop their own adult sites. The abundance of these sites increases the probability that a person will access such sites increases. Many people explore the world of pornography in the comfort and privacy of their own home. Most of these people would not openly view pornography but in front of their computer or webtv screen, secluded from everything and importantly from any interaction with people, they explore the pornography industry. The addiction to pornography is also a cause for the success on the Internet. This addiction factor has started to show up in studies. Curiosity plays are very important factor in the online pornographic society.

Curiosity, an integral part of the human nature can lead to many problems and addictions in today’s world. Even as little children, we are instantly drawn by our natural instinct to find and explore new things. It is not unusual to see little children climbing chairs, shaking boxes and toys and even tasting things to find out new information on objects. When a child is told not to open, touch or interfere with the object this make it more “intriguing” and the child will more of likely want to interfere with the object. This environment is created with the pornography industry with many people not having access to it easily until the dawn on the Internet age.
Some individuals who administer pornographic sites, just do it for the financial benefits, others believe pornography is just a form of art and may believe there is nothing wrong with nudity or satisfying sexual pleasures through such “entertainment.” However many others do not share this view. Nearly all humans have heard about pornography and how distasteful, obscene and a topic for daily conversation. The fact that pornography is not accepted by all would stop people from openly exploring and indulging in pornography. As humans however it is our nature to want to find out information for ourselves and not rely on what we have been told. The Internet provides this discrete, private arena where users can explore the world of pornography.
Web administrators play on this curious nature of humans by sending cleverly written subjects in emails. Most people would not be tempted to explore a link if it has “PORNOGRAPHY” right in the subject area. The titles of these emails are skillfully composed (i.e. “hi there”, “Baby”, “Long Lost Friend”) to intrigue and lure individuals into opening these messages. The body of such (the) messages might contain pornographic material or just a simple link labeled (CLICK HERE). This will lead to a pornographic site. Searching for information using words of phases not associated with pornography through a search engine in some cases could result in some pornographic links shows up. The mind will often wonder how the link happened to show up in the results. Some will disregard the link while other will allow their curious instinct to takes over and lead them into exploring of the site. The other for some being tempted and others not, may be because they have either explored pornography before or suppress the urge to find out first hand by exposing themselves to such form of entertainment.
Pornography can be addictive as many psychologists are now looking at the industry with the same issues as drugs and alcohol. Victor B. Cline, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist states in an Internet website:
The first change that happened was an addiction-effect. The porn-consumers got hooked. Once involved in pornographic materials, they kept coming back for more and still more. The material seemed to provide a very powerful sexual stimulant or aphrodisiac effect.

After the first exposure to pornography some users get caught in this fantasy world. The need for more pornography which is easily attainable online, provides the medium to fulfill the desires of persons addicted to this type of material. For those people who are into pornography, and over the curiosity stage, the Internet provides the vast median. These open pornographers can find any and every kind of pornography with a quick search or mouse click to a link. The Internet also has live shows in which users can actively participate in, by chatting with the performers. No longer is it necessary to go out of your homes, pornography is conveniently located where anyone with a computer that is Internet ready can find. The Internet with it huge connectivity also provides users with links to other pornographers so that they can obtain lots of information that was not present before.
A detective, who is an expert on pedophilia, explained to me that the Internet has opened up vast new worlds to these men. Individuals with similar preferences can be sought out for reinforcement. Photographs and tips on seduction can be exchanged. This networking provides numerous incitements to action that such persons lacked in years past.
(Wisher Raymond 17)

This information is normally free passed along to users from all corners of the earth.
People will argue that the pornography thrives because it can be freely access by anyone on the Internet. Today, however o most of the sites have memberships fees and are not free. They might provide a free tour but to get exclusive pictures and access to most information users must be members. The sites that are apparently free make their money from advertising. Therefore, in order for they to stay free persons visiting their sites must in some way “pay” for the site. Either clicking through to another site or buying something from the site may do this. These sites usually are in partnership with the non-free site, so that when a visitor from their page sign up for membership for the partner site they get a commission. This makes the site not as free as it seems. The lack of laws specifically geared to policing the Internet could also be a cause for pornography thriving online but in society strip clubs and other form of adult entertainment of this nature exist and it legal.
The pornography industry might thrive online for many more reasons but the main reason is because of the curiosity. This element of human nature related to pornography in some cases cannot be easily overcome and when provided with the correct medium, the Internet, it can be explored in secret. Addiction also plays an important part. The curiosity will disappear after a while but if users are addiction they will continue to return to the site for more and more pornography. All these factors would not exist if the industry was not very sucessful online so the amount of many made by the administrators of websites play a very important part. All the causes link strongly together and cannot be easily separated but combine to make the pornography industry thrive online.
Work Cited

“GoTo.com - More Tools and Tips to Help Manage Your Account”
<http://inventory.go2.com/inventory/Search_Suggestion.jhtml>
(11 November 1999).

“Healing Pornography and Sexual Addictions/Dr. Victor Cline”.
<http://pw2.netcom.com/~mimnyc/porngrow.htm> (28 October 1999).

Leland, John. “More Buck for the Bang.” Newsweek Sep.
1999: 61
“Search Words”. <http://www.searchwords.com/top100w.htm>
(11 November 1999).
Wisher, Raymond. “A glimpse into dark hearts.” American
Enterprise May/Jun 1997: 17