Tuesday, Sep 9, 2008    Text size: 

“The Porn Report,” which was co-authored by Dr. Kath Albury, a postdoctoral fellow at the Journalism and Media Research Centre at the University of New South Wales said that while sex videos might boost the careers of various celebrities, there can be serious consequences for private citizens that go too public.

The University of NSW has been studying online pornography for the past 10 years.

"The technology has probably gotten ahead of us here and the penny hasn't dropped yet for a lot of people posting this material yet," Albury said in the article.

"But they will come to realize there is still a lot of stigma attached to it. You and your friends may not have a problem with it,” Albury added, “but your parents or your employers could and once the image is out there you can't get it back."

Albury also said that there are still numerous online users that have either voyeuristic or exhibitionist tendencies that drive them to watch and be watched online, and that many of these individuals do not feel that their desires are being met by professionally produced adult content.

Fiona Patton, chief executive of Australian adult industry trade organization the Eros Association, commented that amateur content producers who post their videos online for free are creating competition for adult websites that do charge memberships or fees.

U.S. adult star Belladonna also was quoted for the article, and said that she believes that free amateur content will always have a big online presence; however, she said that her base of loyal fans allows her to not be as affected by the availability of free content.

"I don't feel threatened. I really don't try and think about that stuff. I just try to focus on what I'm doing," Belladonna said. "DVD sales have gone down a little bit but if people are going to like a certain style of sex they are going to follow that person around."