by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer

(Feb. 5, 2008) It’s been talked about for years, but mobile porn is about to come one step closer to your child’s iPod and cell phone.

Adult content providers and technology companies are meeting in Miami this week at the third annual Mobile Adult Content Congress to discuss ways to make mobile porn happen in the U.S.

Until now, North American carriers have shied away from the concept for fear of a backlash from parents and religious groups, but the multi-billion dollar European mobile porn market is making it tough for carriers to resist the temptation to cash in.

But things may change this year as phone companies plan to loosen control on their networks to allow a wider variety of gadgets and services, says Sinead Carew of Reuters. “It will be impossible to stop the adult business exploitation of mobile entertainment,”a leading adult entertainment lawyer, Gregory Piccionelli of Piccionelli & Sarno, told Carew.

The market is indeed lucrative. According to UK-based Juniper Research, the mobile adult content market is expected to hit $3.3 billion by 2011, mostly due to the strong European market for cell phone porn which hit a high of $775 million in 2007. Nervous carriers have kept North American profits at only $26 million and some who did venture into the market, such as
Canada’s second largest carrier, Telus Corp, withdrew after criticism from customers and the
Catholic Church.

But North American squeamishness is not a trend that’s expected to continue. As cell phone and iPod technology continues to improve its graphics capabilities, adult content is expected to become more prevalent by 2009.

“Mobile is about fun and instant gratification,” said Bruce Gibson, Senior Consultant for Juniper Research, in a press release. “I think the biggest opportunity is at the casual and ‘softer’ end of the adult market – lads in pubs sharing a video clip after a few pints and people looking fora bit of fun when they have spare time to kill, etc. – not the hard core stuff.”

The attitude that viewing porn is just a lot of “harmless fun” means trouble for parents who send their kids off to school with a cell phone or iPod tucked into their pocket, especially when  statistics show the primary consumers of pornography are boys between the ages of 12 and 18.

U.S. carriers plan to introduce safeguards such as age verification, but computer-savvy teens are more than likely to figure out ways to get around them.

Porn-on-the-Pod
Porn producers have also been aiming at the iPod industry in an effort to make hard-core pornographic imagery available to users of Apple Computer’s iPod and similar devices. The popularity of video-capable iPods has encouraged the porn industry to produce iPod-compatible content, what industry insiders are calling “porn on the pod.”

Not everyone is laughing, however. In a 2006 interview with James L. Lambert of Agape Press, Dr. Judith Reisman, an expert on the ill-effects of pornography, warned that “iPods will bring pornography into the classrooms, sanctuaries, courtrooms, hospitals, libraries, everywhere. It is well past time for [government regulation] to catch up with runaway technology.”

Patrick Trueman, former prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice, agreed and said that because children are especially vulnerable to content streamed onto mobile devices, the government should require carriers to devise ways for parents to keep control of the content.

Bob Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, told Lambert that the whole concept of mobile adult content is “a nightmare for parents who are trying to protect their kids from early exposure to porn. In terms of delivering smut, the hand-held gadgets are already making the internet look like a quaint old steam engine.

“Parents need to know that they are potentially putting an X-rated porn shop right into their kid’s hands when they buy these [portable video players] for them.”

Aside from pressuring the government, Knight recommends that parents also insist that carriers act responsibly and provide tamper-proof blocking.

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