# Are there sny statisics available about Americans viewing/owning pornography? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 24, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-sny-statisics-available-about-americans-viewing-owning-pornography/120503 "2002-07-24T03:08:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-sny-statisics-available-about-americans-viewing-owning-pornography/120503/1 "2002-07-24T03:08:03Z")
I heard somewhere that pornography was the the main economic force in the creation of the home video industry. Don’t know whether it’s true, but it sure sounds plausible. Are there numbers available? How many American view pornography regularly? Own pornography? How much money each year is spent on pornography. A Google for “pornography statistics population” didn’t come up with anything useful that I saw. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-sny-statisics-available-about-americans-viewing-owning-pornography/120503/2 "2002-07-24T03:48:57Z")
IIRC, statistics of this kind are hard to come by. There was a local case a couple of years ago where the sheriff (Simon Leis, played marvelously by James Carville in _The People vs. Larry Flynt_) and prosecutor went after the owner of a local feeelthy movies establishment.\* I vaguely recall the defense introducing records from Time Warner Cable on pay-per-view porn as part of their community standards argument. If you’re feeling ambitious, do a name search at [http://www.courtclerk.org](http://www.courtclerk.org) for Elise Metcalf. That should get you all the trial documents. \*No, we never learn in Cincinnati. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-sny-statisics-available-about-americans-viewing-owning-pornography/120503/3 "2002-07-24T21:04:07Z")
- - - How about this: I don’t have any porn and never look at any, so put me in the “totally innocent” category… - DougC ---
**Author:** ![JanusZeal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@JanusZeal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JanusZeal)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-sny-statisics-available-about-americans-viewing-owning-pornography/120503/4 "2002-07-24T21:41:57Z")
Woo! Go Doug! There don’t seem to be too many of us left, sometimes… ---
**Author:** ![JanusZeal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@JanusZeal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JanusZeal)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-sny-statisics-available-about-americans-viewing-owning-pornography/120503/5 "2002-07-24T21:57:59Z")
Woo! Go Doug! There don’t seem to be too many of us left, sometimes… ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-sny-statisics-available-about-americans-viewing-owning-pornography/120503/6 "2002-07-24T23:01:05Z")
I can’t really add anything, except that they say that internet porn is a multi-billion dollar per year industry. It’s one of the few 'net businesses that have consistently turned profits, even during the dot-com meltdown of the past few years. As for the home video industry… Why do you think that VCR’s with slow-motion playback were invented?