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Pornographic Web sites become big draw in the region

More Asians are flocking to pornographic Web sites, with South Koreans posting the biggest rise among the four regional economies polled in a survey released yesterday.

All four markets surveyed -- South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore -- posted double-digit growth rates in the number of visitors to porn sites, research firm NetValue said.

The number of South Koreans visiting porn sites in March grew 72 percent to 10.73 million from 6.23 million a year ago, NetValue said.

In second place was Hong Kong, which saw a 43 percent rise to 715,700 visitors from 501,600.

Taiwan saw the third biggest increment of 30 percent as 2.54 million visitors went to porn sites in March, compared with 1.96 million 12 months ago.

Singapore saw the smallest rise of 29 percent with 373,100 visitors, versus 288,800 last year.

The survey was conducted by putting net meters in the computers of those surveyed, in order to track their activities on the internet. The users were aware their surfing activities were being monitored.

NetValue said the survey results suggested misuse of the Internet.

"The Internet is supposed to be an efficient tool for the dissemination and seeking of information," said NetValue's regional president Jack Loo.

"However, if more people are spending time searching for adult materials, the the public should probably take note of such negative externalities, especially since there are young teenagers among the visitors," he said.

In South Korea, nearly half of the visitors were students, NetValue said.
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