The prosecution says more than 70 percent of files it got from three servers of Qvod were pornographic materials. (Photo : Vodeblog.com)
Despite China's ongoing crackdown on pornography on the Internet, a recent trial against video-sharing company QVOD Technology for the spread of pornographic material has revealed that there is an alarming amount of obscene content accessible on one of China's most popular video-sharing websites, as reported by the Global Times.
Prosecutors said during the trial that 70 percent of the 28,841 videos stored on QVOD's servers were found to contain pornographic materials.
However, Wang Xin, CEO of QVOD, disputes this claim, saying that the data would mean that over 100 million QVOD users were estimated to have cached hundreds of millions of files using his software.
"I cannot believe that over 100 million users watched pornography every day," Wang said.
According to a survey released by the Institute of Sexuality and Gender of the Renmin University of China that was published on Jan. 9, there have been an increasing number of adults who watch pornography in recent years.
The survey showed that over 68 percent of the 5,136 respondents aged between 18 and 29 watched pornographic material including films and pictures during the first half of 2015.
It said that from 2000 to 2015, more than 70 percent of respondents said that they had watched pornographic materials. The proportion is estimated to exceed 80 percent by 2020.
The proportion of female respondents who admit to having watched pornography has also increased from 36.5 percent in 2000 to 50.7 percent in 2015.
Pan Suiming, a sexologist who led the research, questioned, "Does this result show gender equality? Should those middle-aged women who protested obscenity admit that they are behind the time?"
Pan is famous for having done extensive research into China's red-light districts, interviewing over 1,000 female sex workers from 1998 to 2010.
The survey found that those who have a higher education background watch more pornography. Cohabitants also watch more pornography than single respondents.
Since April 2014, China has been cracking down on online pornography in an effort to protect minors and public morality.
Under China's Criminal Law, people who spread obscene materials can be sentenced to life imprisonment.
However, despite the crackdown, young people have been finding ways to watch pornography.
Young people tend to use cloud-based storage platforms to download pornography. Some then share them with their peers using offline file transfers.
According to Pan's research, pornography has no correlation to unethical sexual activities like adultery, polygamy, prostitution and group sex.
