Gee, How Did These Boobies Get On My Screen?

from the so-many-accidents! dept

We're generally pretty skeptical about every single study that talks about personal surfing at work -- because, without fail, they all seem to be funded by companies looking to sell web filters. The latest such study is, indeed, funded by a firm trying to sell filters, but has one amusing point. While not that many people actually do end up surfing porn at work (16% of men and 8% of women), only 6% of men and 5% of women claimed they surfed pornography at work on purpose. Of course, if that's the case, can someone explain why 10% of men are seeing porn accidentally, while only 3% of women are? Are men just naturally "accidentally" surfing to more sites that may include porn, or is someone being a little less than truthful? Seems more like people are answering the survey based on what they think they should say, rather than what's true.
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Reader Comments

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  • identicon
    Taylor, 16 May 2006 @ 4:15pm

    Could be the people that put the porn ads up focus on websites that target men.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Pat, 16 May 2006 @ 4:29pm

    Accidentally

    I accidentally read stupid crap on the internet like this "article" thing of some retard's thoughts on a retard statistic. I hate the internet.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Armand Tanzarian, 16 May 2006 @ 4:30pm

    Try searching for any random term on Google's image search without "Safe Search" being enabled and you'll end up with *some* kind of pr0n on your screen at some point.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Armand Tanzarian, 16 May 2006 @ 4:35pm

    For example: try "tech" (first image returned is a scantily clad Asian girl) and "dirt" gets you a naked woman sprawled on the ground in image #2. Sheesh...avoiding porn (should one want to for some reason) on the Internet isn't just nontrivial, it's actually a bit of a challenge.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mike Mixer, 16 May 2006 @ 4:36pm

    accidental porn

    The truth is that the 3% of women that view porn at work are only recognised because they're looking at what men think porn is. I think that if you counted all of the women by what women consider porn to be the number would be much closer to men. It isn't a difference in gender, the difference is perception, and as long as we keep holding up the male ideal of porn when making these studies men will keep looking bad

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2006 @ 8:31pm

      Re: accidental porn

      Huh?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2006 @ 9:32pm

      Re: accidental porn

      "The truth is that the 3% of women that view porn at work are only recognised because they're looking at what men think porn is. I think that if you counted all of the women by what women consider porn to be the number would be much closer to men. It isn't a difference in gender, the difference is perception, and as long as we keep holding up the male ideal of porn when making these studies men will keep looking bad"

      Great point! I like soft porn too. This is one guy who doesn't like watching cock. I probably look at all the non-porn porn women do, with the addition of lesbians.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2006 @ 4:40pm

    "Seems more like people are answering the survey based on what they think they should say, rather than what's true."

    Um, no duh.

    Usually I find Techdirt pretty insightful, but this was pretty pointless.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Ben McNelly, 16 May 2006 @ 4:41pm

    wups...

    I recently was involved in a study that found 97 percent of studies usualy come up with the results they were looking for....

    *This study was funded by your mom.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mavyak, 16 May 2006 @ 4:55pm

    Stats

    50% of internet researchers graduate in the lower half of their class.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2006 @ 5:53pm

    Well no shit, of course people are lying.
    Seriously, this is like saying "NEWS FLASH: children lie when they don't want to get in trouble".

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    shenfo, 16 May 2006 @ 7:40pm

    67% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    JumperPunk, 16 May 2006 @ 9:38pm

    yay for personalized search

    of course for those who are trying to avoid porno with more of a motivation than just to keep their jobs (like keeping their mind pure for their spouce (or future wife in my case)), will find that it is easier to avoid porno the more you do avoid porno when using google's personalized search because less of that type of result shows up. and for those who dont have a gmail account... ask someone for an invite today.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Zeroth404, 17 May 2006 @ 5:27am

    Depending on what kind of offices were in the study, it could have been fact that there were simply more men.

    Then again, nobody ever said they were being honest.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jeff, 17 May 2006 @ 7:35am

    Wow! 3% of women surf for porn

    Unfortunately, my wife ain't one of them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Raymond, 17 May 2006 @ 8:25am

    What exactly was accidental?

    When admitting accidentally surfing for porn at work, the question is, what was accidental?

    1. I was surfing for porn, but forgot that I was at work. (Clicked the wrong bookmark by mistake.)
    2. I was surfing for something else, but accidentally got porn. (Clicked the wrong search result by mistake.)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Intergalactic Hussy, 17 May 2006 @ 10:15am

    Hey! Not all women only like softcore pr0n!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 17 May 2006 @ 11:35am

      Re:

      "Hey! Not all women only like softcore pr0n!"

      I think I'm in love (or at least lust)

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    dixon, 18 May 2006 @ 4:14am

    oh, that was aimed at Pat by the way who said: "I accidentally read stupid crap on the internet like this "article" thing of some retard's thoughts on a retard statistic. I hate the internet." - don't bloody use it then

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    robert lesieur, 26 May 2006 @ 6:39am

    sex or porn

    i love porn,watch it always,the hell with work,all kinds,fisting,shemales,milf,gays,and the beasty ones,at least i don,t lie about it, except when my wife is around, there is nothing wrong with it, is there, well is there, thank you for listening,the bad boy, rob

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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