Wednesday, May 23, 2007    Text size: 

The online survey asked questions of 1,095 participants aged 18-44 from across Australia.

Only 2 percent of respondents said that they were offended by explicit erotic films, which receive the Australian government's X18+ rating. Almost 100 percent of male respondents — and 96 percent of female respondents — said that they were not offended.

A larger number, 16 percent of total respondents, said they were offended by films containing violence, and if given the choice of buying a classified explicit erotic film or a film primarily containing violence, 84 percent said they’d choose the erotic film. In Australia, X18+ rated films contain no violence, sexual violence or sexualized violence, no coercion and no activity of a demeaning nature.

Online adult retailer AdultShop.com, which commissioned the survey, said the results provided a strong indication that Australian adults were comfortable with sex and watching it in films.

Most respondents said they believed explicit erotic films actually helped improve relationships by enabling couples to communicate what they like. More than half of those surveyed said they incorporated erotic films into their bedroom activities. Among the female respondents, 52 percent said they watched erotic films to help them get “in the mood” to have sex with a partner or alone.

According to Australian law, sale of erotic films is only legal in the city of Canberra and the Northern Territory. It is illegal in the rest of Australia. When asked if they had purchased erotic films through an adult store, where it is technically illegal, 28 percent of respondents from New South Wales and 22 percent from Queensland admitted they had — and 60 percent had no idea that it was against the law.