Some of the stats I uncovered as I was researching my play P0RN!
- Women are almost twice as likely than men to share intimate images of themselves online. [Refuge]
- 1 in 7 women aged 18-34 have been threatened with revenge porn. In most cases, the threats come from current or former partners, and it is just one form of intimate partner abuse they will have experienced. [Refuge]
- In the UK, conviction data for image-based sexual abuse shows that 86% of these were domestic violence and abuse related. [Women’s Aid, 2018]
- The majority of revenge porn images are distributed via social media and amateur pornography platforms, like OnlyFans. [Victims Alliance]
- The number of people selling pornographic content on platforms like OnlyFans ‘increased dramatically’ during the pandemic. [SWAI]
- In every country in the world with lockdown orders, pornography consumption increased in 2020. [Zattoni et al]
- PornHub received nearly 50 billion visits in 2020. [PornHub]
- In Ireland in 2021, reporting of sexual offences was up 10 per cent, with sexual assault reports rising 18 per cent, rape reports rising 10 per cent and child pornography offences rising 8 per cent. [An Garda Síochána]
In Ireland *this year*:
- Married man from Bray who viewed child abuse images including animals has jail time halved https://www.independent.ie/…/married-man-from-bray-who…
- Man jailed for tricking teenage girls, including stepdaughter, into sending sexual images https://www.irishexaminer.com/…/cour…/arid-40789764.html
- Man caught with over 4,000 child abuse images gets suspended sentence https://www.irishtimes.com/…/man-caught-with-over-4-000…
These are just some of the reasons I wrote P0RN! With one exception, every humiliating, risky and exploitative thing that happens in the play has happened to someone I know in the past 2 years. If any of this bothers you as much as it bothers me, please help us get their stories on the stage – they’re not going to talk about them anywhere else.