LONDON — It’s no secret that the porn industry has a love affair with Twitter, but a U.K. report has put numbers to the use of the social media service and said one in every thousand tweets is porn related.
According to the U.K.’s Channel 4 News, porn stars tweet constantly to build their fan base and almost 500,000 sexual images are posted daily.
U.K. porn star Jasmine Jae, who boasts 60,000 Twitter followers, told Channel 4 News, "When I first came into the industry one of first pieces of advice was to get on Twitter. It's about building your profile, you can see who's shooting and it's a good way of contacting people. Ninety-seven percent of the work I've got is me approaching people and them approaching me on Twitter.”
But the report also pointed to the inherent danger that inappropriate images may be being viewed by underage users. Although Twitter allows content to be marked “adults-only,” it doesn’t restrict porn like other major social media outlets. The report claimed that of the U.K.'s 15 million Twitter users, about a million are under 18.
Adult performer Lexi Lowe said that the warning can help prevent viewing by minors and that she tries to make it clear that her account is for adults only.
In light of recent mandatory U.K. Internet restrictions and filtering of adult content, the report cited some in the industry that believe Twitter should follow suit and restrict some material.
Publisher Paul Raymond’s Mark Hassell said, "I think Twitter should look at filtering and putting in an 18+ restriction. I think everyone in the adult industry would think that's the right thing. We have children and younger family members and don't want them seeing stuff that is too full-on and inappropriate."
But free speech advocates pointed out that controls could inadvertently censor sexual health sites that are unaware that their message is being blocked.
Twitter would not respond to Channel 4 regarding the story but said only about 0.1 percent of its daily content is adult related.