
Pornography addiction is not yet officially recognized as a disorder, but porn is proven to affect the brain much like a drug. Compulsive users may become dependent and even experience withdrawal. And consumers are getting younger—now starting as young as 10. A new website, PornMD, has now produced an interactive graphic of the most common porn-related Internet searches by country and region—giving a revealing picture of the nature of global consumption of this potentially addictive material. The US supplies a whopping 89% of the world’s pornography, with Germany a distant second, at a mere 4%. But while the US makes the most porn, it doesn’t consume the most: Americans spend a measly $44.67 per capita per year on porn—far behind the top three consumers. South Koreans lead the way with a whopping $526.76 average annual porn spend (followed by Japan at $156.75 and Finland at $114.70). Perhaps this isn’t surprising given South Korea’s well-documented technology addiction issues, but it could still be seen as impressive, given that porn is illegal in the country. Other notable tidbits from the website include that the Chinese buy most of their porn from Japan—Asia’s biggest porn producer—despite the historical tensions between the countries. Gay porn searches are much more prominent in South America than elsewhere. In the US, the most common online porn searches vary by region: In the South, the search term “ebony” is more popular than elsewhere, while consumers in the North East most frequently search for “college girls.” Midwesterners, on the other hand, most often search for “milf” or “teen.”