Cheap Data Offers Lead to 75% Increase in Indian Porn Viewership, Time Spent on Porn Sites Increase By 60%

Last year in the month of October, we had reported that free WiFi plans at Patna railway station have ignited a new wave of porn consumption, as the authorities revealed that porn is the #1 search term for free WiFi users.

Immediately, Google and Railwire officials went into a defensive mode and denied such reports, but the question has been raised: Does free and cheap Internet packs is encouraging porn consumption?

Now, a recent report has emerged from Vidooly, a video viewership tracker, which confirms this theory that porn viewership is increasing at an alarming pace due to cheap data plans now available all across India.

The question now arises: Should Govt. and telecom companies convert into a gatekeeper to stop this practice and break net neutrality rules? Or rising porn consumption is a fair indicator of changing Internet preferences of Indians?

Is it good, bad or evil?

Jio = Cheap Data = More Porn

Datagiri of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has triggered a huge tsunami, all across India, wherein data packs have slashed, data speeds improved and the average price of 1 GB of data has fallen to $0.33, wherein Jio is offering the same at $0.17.

As per Mary Meeker report, there has been an average reduction of data prices by 10% on a quarterly basis.

And the direct result of this dirt cheap Internet access has triggered an unprecedented increase in porn viewing, especially from tier 2/3 cities.

As per the report from Vidooly, most of the users from Tier2 and 3 cities have access to smartphones which have less memory and storage, and this is one of the reasons why online porn viewing on mobile phones have increased at such a rapid pace.

60% of all porn viewed in the country is, not surprisingly, coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

As per Subrat Kar, co-founder and CEO of Vidooly, online porn viewership have increased by 75%, whereas time spent on porn sites have increased by 60%.

And 80% of the adult content viewed is short form.

Thankfully, it is only porn which has increased due to cheap data packs. Content related to music, entertainment, news and comedy shows have also increased within the 18-34 age group.

Overall, as per Subrat, 30-40% increase in viewership and watch-time has increased in these 4 categories.

Overall Video Consumption Increases

Due to Jio’s disruption in the telecom sector, Airtel, BSNL, Vodafone and others have been forced to reduce their data tariffs, and the result is that video consumption has increased in all aspects.

Maybe increase in porn viewing is just a sub-set of this increase in video consumption.

As per the report, the video is right now accountable to 80% of all data consumption happening in the country, and this is indeed a positive sign for the Digital India mission because this means that people are now watching more Internet videos and less TV.

But, the massive increase in porn consumption is certainly a red flag, which somehow blots the whole purpose of Digital India mission.

Do let us know your viewpoints on this issue, by commenting right here!

Update: Image & Title updated for accuracy