Gail Dines, a sociologist who studies pornography, agrees that precise numbers would be impossible to find. But as an anti-pornography advocate, she views the potential environmental costs of such rabid online consumption as an important critique against the industry. She is sure that online pornography is much more popular, and attributes this growth to what she calls the principle of the “three As”: affordability, accessibility, and anonymity. “The more anonymous you make porn, the more affordable, the more accessible, the more you drive demand,” she says.
In her view, each new technology heightens the three As. Mobile phones, which can be viewed anywhere, are more private than desktop computers, DVDs, and VHSs, which must be viewed in a home. Those, in turn, are more private than an adult theater. Consumption has also become more anonymous as tube sites like Pornhub require no log-in or credit-card information. There is no fear of being seen by a neighbor at a sex shop.
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All the researchers I spoke to would love to have access to reliable data. The sociologist Chauntelle Tibbals believes in the educational benefits of pornography, but she has qualms with the industry’s exploitative practices, and therefore has misgivings about using numbers provided by Pornhub. She notes that Pornhub is part of a vast porn empire called MindGeek, which quietly controls almost all of the free tube sites and an increasing number of production companies. Tibbals believes Pornhub releases these numbers—and engages in promotional activities like a recent offer of free snow removal in Boston—as an attempt to normalize itself and to shift the focus away from rampant piracy issues and accusations of promoting sexual violence against women. (Pornhub did not respond to a request for an interview.)
Although their numbers could be accurate, Tibbals believes trusting them without access to company records would be naïve, akin to trusting numbers published in brochures by companies like Goldman Sachs or Exxon. For that reason, she says a huge asterisk must be placed beside them in any serious effort to comprehend their impact. It’s possible Pornhub’s data is not reflective of the adult industry, but only of adult piracy sites.
Ensmenger, the Indiana University historian, agrees that the numbers are nebulous at best. But like Dines, he still thinks these questions are worth asking, even if only to raise awareness that internet porn does take an environmental toll. While Pornhub may be using an enormous amount of electricity, “none of us are paying that electrical bill in any way that impacts our behavior,” he says.
For Ensmenger, this epitomizes the problem with the digital economy, where so many of the costs are outsourced or hidden that consumers believe everything is free. Most sites offer their free videos by selling advertising to companies that track consumer behavior, and these cookies require a considerable amount of energy. More importantly, consumers don’t have to think about the significant environmental costs of constructing and destructing electrical products, such as screens, servers, and hard drives.