AUSTRALIA — Australia has long been known as a country full of passionate humans, but the number of them going on line in search of erotic materials just keeps getting bigger. According to the Nielsen Net Ratings/NetView, those swelling numbers include an ever increasing percentage of women.In fact, the world leader in internet analysis discovered that 4.3 million Australians checked out an adult website at least once during the first quarter of the year. In addition to sites specifically dedicated to erotic imagery or text, these numbers included sex-focused dating sites.

What these numbers translate into is 35-percent of all internet visits ending in a decidedly adult location. The final month of the survey alone saw 2.7 million Australians find their way to a sexually explicit site, an increase of 23-percent during the past year and a half.

A demographic breakdown further reveals a number of interesting pieces of information: while one in five visitors were under the age of 18, five-percent of them were 65-years-of-age or older – and a third of all traffic had a woman at the virtual wheel. Additionally, the more money a surfer has, the more likely s/he is to have savored the joys to be found in an online eye full.

Naturally, anti-porn pundits are heralding the news as yet another assault on the family and healthy relationships. The Age quotes senior sexual health program lecturer for the University of Sydney, Brett Mcann, as warning the world that online porn consumption is “a growing problem with big implications for the public health dollar.”

Nonetheless, those like Alan McKee of Queensland University of Technology are attempting to cool the hysteria by pointing out that research indicates that those who enjoy online adult entertainment overwhelmingly speak of its impact on their lives and relationships in a positive sense. McKee and colleagues conducted a survey of more than 1000 self-selected online porn fans and found that 58.8-percent of them said it positively influenced their views on sexuality, while only 6.8-percent said otherwise.

“Australians who use pornography say it not only gives them pleasure, but broadens their minds and provides a valuable sex education,” McKee observes.

Those worried about the impact of explicit online sexuality upon women may be reassured by Fiona Patten, CEO for the Eros Association, who say that as more women have become comfortable exploring sexuality online, they have also begun visiting the many brick-and-mortar shops that have popped up to facilitate their search for real life fulfillment.

This, of course, strikes fear in the hearts of some, including Helen L’Orange, the former head of the Office of the Status of Women, who wants a royal commission or other national body to investigate how internet pornography has affected society and relationships.