Mobile phone browsers mean more porn

Turns out that browsers on phones have made dirty men (and women) dirtier. Google has found that a higher percentage of search queries on mobile phones are for adult content than on home and office computers. A whopping 20% of mobile searches are for porn. One in every five. Wow. On the other hand, ‘only’ 8.5% of searches on PCs are for the same thing.

On a purely practical level, you might assume that those numbers would be reversed. The small screens would seemingly make the phone a less attractive locale for ogling whatever it is you like to ogle. The results, though, indicate that privacy is a far bigger factor than are ideal viewing conditions. People would rather squint at a tiny picture than try to explain to their wife or their boss why they are searching for whatever depravity they are asking Google to uncover. Makes sense. Frankly, that’s as much as I want to think about other people and their viewing habits.