With the quarantine that happened during the coronavirus, many of us became bored with nothing to entertain ourselves. Even though parts of the country are opening up, there are still many people who would rather stay protected from the virus inside their homes. Because of this, we’re starting to see a dramatic change in online search habits that are also leading many people to turn to porn, most likely because of idle internet time. This has caused a spike in porn consumption throughout the country which has led to a spike of coronavirus porn scams in the United States.
The Rate in Which PornHub Viewing Has Increased Throughout the United States
PornHub Viewing in the United States When COVID-19 First Happened
Taken from PornHub, this data shows how much PornHub viewing in the United States increased compared to before the coronavirus happened. The views on an average day decreased by -0.7% before coronavirus restrictions happened on February 24th. Once the government started shutting down due to the pandemic, people were forced to stay indoors and only go out for essential needs. This led to an increase in porn viewing during the month of March, where views on an average day rose to 6.4%.
PornHub Viewing in the United States by Hour
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Also taken from PornHub, this data table shows the hourly viewing increase on March 17th compared to what it used to be before the coronavirus quarantine. According to this graph, there was a 40.3% increase in viewers in the middle of the night and a 26.8% increase in viewers in the middle of the day. This goes to show that because of the pandemic, people were staying up late at night and were stuck at home during the day, looking for something to pass the time. Therefore, the audience percentage peaked at these specific times.
PornHub Viewing During the Zoom Outage
According to PornHub, there was a Zoom outage on August 24, 2020, which led to a 6.2% increase of users going on PornHub during the outage. Zoom is a video conferencing platform that a lot of online schools and workplaces are using for professional meetings or classes. Without Zoom, people weren’t expected to go to class or these meetings and became bored as they were quarantining at home, waiting for Zoom to come back on. Therefore, to pass the time they relied on PornHub.
PornHub Viewing in the United States From March 3rd- July 13th
Also taken from PornHub, this graph shows the percentage of traffic increases throughout the world. You are able to change the country you would like to view by clicking the “World” drop-down menu and selecting the country of the stats you want to view. Even though there are slight decreases during this period of time, it is still apparent that traffic is continuing to increase compared to what it used to be back in early March. Even if we focused on just the United States, we can see that the amount of users on PornHub continues to remain steady from March-July since the coronavirus restrictions began.
“I’ve definitely noticed an uptick in porn use since the pandemic and it could be from a combination of factors. First, it could be from increased time on the computer because of the quarantine. Second, it could be from increased marital tension from the pandemic so more people are outsourcing to porn. Third, it could be from an increased need for pleasure to medicate the stress from the pandemic, similar to those turning to substances,” Dr. Wyatt Fisher, author of Best Marriage Books of 2020, has stated.
Have People’s Pornography Interests Changed Due to the Coronavirus?
Taken from PornHub, this graph from March of 2020 shows the rate that coronavirus related porn searches have increased. When the coronavirus was first spreading throughout the United States, Washington D.C., New York, and Washington were some of the top states that had the most coronavirus cases. Because of this, they were forced to have stricter quarantine laws before anyone else back in March. Because people had nothing else to do, pornography viewing in the United States increased and so did the search history on PornHub. People don’t want to watch the same type of porn on a daily basis, so people looked into what was new in the world… and at the time it was the coronavirus.
As you can see with both of these Google Trends charts, there is a similar correlation between the search terms “face mask porn” and “coronavirus”, showing the rise of popularity of face mask porn as the coronavirus started. As we quarantined at home, we started to see the environment around us change as more and more people started wearing face masks and gloves while doing necessary things like getting food or grocery shopping. In a way, it started becoming the new normal that was being engraved in our brains and shaping our behavior to become curious as to what the world would be like when we got intimate with our partners. Therefore, it started shaping the curiosity of us to look up different terms related to the coronavirus once it started.
The Precautions Porn Production Companies are Taking As They Return Back to Set
According to the Rolling Stone, major porn production companies are making serious changes to how they film pornography in order to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. While everyone is required to wear masks on set, the actors are not required to wear them while they are on camera because of “saleability and you’re already in close contact with somebody.”
They are also requiring porn stars to get tested 24 hours in advance of a shoot to make sure they don’t have the virus. Porn production company Falcon/Naked Sword are not allowing porn stars to Uber in another person’s car to set. They are also paying for them to quarantine in a hotel room after the test and before the shoot, and are also monitoring their social media accounts to make sure they aren’t partying in groups before the shoot.
They are also focusing on sex acts between two people. There will be no “foursomes, gang bangs, multiple sex partner scenes, anything around swingers that has a lot of people on set,” Rolling Stone has reported when interviewing Patrick, the content director for adult streaming service AdultTime. There will also be no exchanging of a lot of bodily fluids.
This could change what people are into in the future since certain sexual acts will be withheld from the newer videos. While pornography production companies are not required to have their actors wear masks on set, a lot of actors don’t want to go back to set because of the risks involved. This could mean more videos where masks and distanced sexual positions are used, with only two people, and less physical contact. This is the future of pornography, at least for now, and our human behaviors of what we are into will most likely change with the trends.
Coronavirus Porn Scams Have Increased Due to the Increase of Porn Users
Scammers are aware whenever something trends or becomes more popular because they want to target as many victims as they can to steal their funds and drain their bank accounts. They have paid attention to the increase of audience on porn sites, and are now using that to their advantage as they blackmail people into giving them their hard-earned cash.
Here are the types of coronavirus porn scams that you should avoid as you quarantine at home:
Sextortion Blackmail Emails
The scammer sends you an email stating that they installed malware on their device that has been tracking what kind of porn they watch and recording the user “satisfying themselves” as they watch porn. The scammer blackmails the victim into sending them $2,000, or they will send the porn and video footage over to the victims’ contacts.
The victim gets scared that the scammer actually has video footage of them watching porn and sends the money over to keep them quiet. The scammer doesn’t think the money is enough and keeps bugging the victim until their bank account is drained.
Premium Girls Scam
The scammer matches with their victims on dating apps and tells the victims to follow them on Snapchat. Once they are added on Snapchat, the scammer tells the victim that this is their premium account where the victim can pay them money to view their explicit pictures.
The victim uses Venmo usually to send over the money, then the premium girl blocks the victim taking the money without sending back anything in return. If the premium girl happens to send over her pictures, she could then bug the victim for more money until their bank account is drained.
Minor Scam
A scammer (usually resembles a girl) swipes right on their victim and tells them they are over 18-years-old. She asks for the victim’s phone number because she doesn’t like talking on a dating app. She asks the victim to send a picture of themselves and the scammer sends a picture back. The scammer then tells the victim that they are actually 16-years-old, which usually scares the victim into blocking her from their phone.
“It was the worst experience of my life. I thought I was going to get arrested and genuinely thought giving him the money would make him stop threatening me. But he kept bugging me until I realized from a friend that it was all a scam,” an anonymous source has stated.
What the victim doesn’t know is the scammer still has their phone number, so they create another fake phone number and pretend to be the girl’s dad. They threaten to place a warrant on the victim and get the cops involved if the victim doesn’t send them over money. Once the victim is scared into sending them money, they keep bugging the victim for more and more money until they drain the victim’s bank account.
How to Avoid These Coronavirus Porn Scams
- Don’t send anyone money for any reason. In reality, they don’t have anything to blackmail you with and don’t know your contacts to send any naughty images to anyone you might know. Block the person demanding money, and contact local law enforcement if the threats and blackmail continue.
- Ask the scammer for proof that they know your porn history and have a video of you. This will give you peace of mind knowing that the scammer literally knows nothing about what you’ve been watching and does not have a picture of you, so you don’t need to send them money.
- Tell your local law enforcement if anyone is threatening you, even if you were a victim of the minor scam. The cops are usually very aware of the minor scam and know that you weren’t actually in contact with a 16-year-old. They will help you track the scammer down and press charges if they blackmailed and threatened you.
- Block the scammer so they can’t contact you. This will give you peace-of-mind knowing that the scammer can’t continue to bug you with their empty threats and blackmail.
- Don’t give anyone your personal information. The scammer can use this information to commit identity fraud against you and steal your hard-earned funds.
- Just because they send you a photo, doesn’t mean its real. A girl sending you selfies or naughty pictures of herself is not confirmation that she is really the person messaging you. That can still be a scammer stealing countless pictures of the same girl and sending them to you so that you think to yourself “this isn’t a scam.” In reality, it is possible that it still could be a scam and you should only trust meeting them in person.
- Don’t send explicit pictures of yourself to anyone you don’t know. The scammer will try to use this against you, making you fear even more so that if you don’t send them money they will send your naughty picture to everyone you know. This usually isn’t the case, and even if they have an explicit image of you they should still be blocked.
- Don’t open any random links that someone has sent you. Phishing emails and messages are filled with malware and viruses that hack into your computer and steal your personal information.
- Install security software on your device to make sure it isn’t infected by malware. This software will allow you to know if your computer is infected and if you need to repair your computer.
- Keep webcams covered when you aren’t using them. This will ensure that no one can see you without your permission.
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