Indians are biggest porn watchers on free WiFi - and it's unsafe
If we have free internet, we watch porn. Or, at least one out of every three of us do.
This isn’t a random declaration, but something that has been found to be true according to a global study conducted by Norton.
The study, which included over 1,000 respondents from India, found "more than one in three Indians admit to using public WiFi to watch adult content". It really doesn’t matter if it's a hotel, airport, library or even at workplace, if there is free WiFi, you can be sure that people around you are looking at porn.
That’s right.
According to the study 49 per cent of the respondents had watched porn at a hotel or an Airbnb, 46 per cent at a friend’s place, 36 per cent at cafes and restaurants (seriously?) and 44 per cent at their workplaces. What more, 31 per cent of the respondents claimed to have watched adult content on streets using public WiFi, while 34 per cent had done so at a bus/train station.
While Indians are not alone in behaving like this, they do stand way ahead of the rest of the world. At a global level – the study includes response of people from across countries such as Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Brazil, the US and the UK – one in six respondents admitted to using public WiFi to watch adult content.
Are Indians obsessed with porn?
Clearly so. According to a 2016 Google Trends report, the highest number of internet-users, who searched for the keyword “porn” on Google, are from India. In fact, six out of the top 10 cities Googling the word “porn” are Indians.
Additionally, an Economic Times report from June 2017 suggests that watching porn on phones have surged as data costs plunged in India’s telecom industry. According to the report, “The viewing of adult content soared 75 per cent since data rates came crashing down in the second half of last fiscal year under severe competitive pressure.”
Streaming of adult content seems to have become more popular as opposed to downloading, thanks to cheaper faster mobile data plans. In fact, according to the Internet Trends Report 2017 by Kleiner Perkins, almost 1,300 million GB of data was consumed by mobile users in India in a month, at March end.
But are Indians safe?
Perhaps not. The Indian love for freebies often manages to override better sense. According to a Norton Wi-Fi risk report, one out of five Indian consumers are willing to sacrifice security for free WiFi and dependency on a quick, free connection via public WiFi could be placing their personal information at risk.
The study says that 74 per cent of Indians who participated in the survey think it is safe to access public WiFi, and 57 per cent have used unsafely practices when online. While 68 per cent had logged onto their social media accounts, 46 per cent had accessed work emails, 30 per cent said they had accessed their financial information using public WiFi.
As much as 54 per cent of Indians don’t use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to secure their WiFi connections, even though it is considered the best way for protecting personal information while 8 per cent were unaware of the term, VPN, the report added.
Internet literacy
Internet users in India are increasing every day. A report from the Internet and Mobile Association of India and market research firm IMRB International said the number of Internet users in India is expected to reach 450-465 million by June, up 4-8 per cent from 432 million in December 2016.
According to the report, the overall Internet penetration in India is currently around 31 per cent and that "urban India with an estimated population of 444 million already has 269 million (60 per cent) using the internet. Rural India, with an estimated population of 906 million as per 2011 Census, has only 163 million (17 per cent) internet users. Thus, there are potential approximately 750 million users still in rural India who are yet to become internet users; if only they can be reached out properly".
The report also adds that 77 per cent of urban users and 92 per cent of rural users consider mobile as the primary device for accessing the internet – again, thanks to cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans.
The numbers are encouraging on one aspect while a little disturbing on the other. Even though more people in India are getting access to the internet, the number of people who are internet literate – having basic knowledge or the ability to use it – are pretty low.
A low rate of digital literacy hinders people being able to adopt technology. People in India are also scared about the breach of privacy and cybercrime, which is another hindrance towards people accepting the digital way.