Gee, How Did These Boobies Get On My Screen?

from the so-many-accidents! dept

Tue, May 16th 2006 3:59pm — Mike Masnick

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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24 Comments

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Taylor, 16 May 2006 @ 4:15pm

Could be the people that put the porn ads up focus on websites that target men.
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2006 @ 6:52pm
  
  Re:
  I agree
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2006 @ 6:52pm
  
  Re:
  I agree
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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.
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 May 2006 @ 11:32am
  
  Re: Accidentally
  But it speaks highly of you....
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- dixon, 18 May 2006 @ 4:09am
  
  Re: Accidentally
  Don't bloody use it then.
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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.
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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.
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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
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2006 @ 8:31pm
  
  Re: accidental porn
  Huh?
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- 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.
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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.
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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.
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Mavyak, 16 May 2006 @ 4:55pm

Stats
50% of internet researchers graduate in the lower half of their class.
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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".
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shenfo, 16 May 2006 @ 7:40pm

67% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
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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.
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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.
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Jeff, 17 May 2006 @ 7:35am

Wow! 3% of women surf for porn
Unfortunately, my wife ain't one of them.
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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.)
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Intergalactic Hussy, 17 May 2006 @ 10:15am

Hey! Not all women only like softcore pr0n!
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- 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)
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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
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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
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