Islamabad: In contrast to the widely held perception that majority of the Pakistani internet users visit porn sites, a study conducted by The News Tribe’s Pakistan Bureau has revealed that most of the Pakistani websites searchers visit news, telecommunication and educational websites.
The study contradicts the reports published in international media about a year ago that ‘sex’ was the most searched term by Pakistanis. Pakistan was dubbed as ‘Pornistan’ after the reports, particularly the Indian media.
About two years ago, US television network Fox News had said in a report that Pakistan stood among the countries where porn websites are the most searched ones on google. The report by Kelli Morgan said Pakistanis led the world in the number of per person searches of terms such as ‘dog sex’, ‘horse sex’, ‘camel sex’ and ‘rape pictures’.
But now, google data shows that educational, telecommunication and news websites are the most visited sites in Pakistan.
Interestingly, ‘google intakes’ shows that the Sri Lankans top the sex searchers. India, Bangladesh and Nepal are also among the major sex searchers.
These allegations disturbed the youngsters of Pakistan, some of whom recently hacked the website of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and wrote, “We are Pakistan, not Pornistan. Porn sites must be shut.”
The internet traffic statistics and metrics of Alexa, which provides information about top websites, show that most internet users in Pakistan visit news websites. Among the 500 most visited websites in Pakistan, there are 32 news portals. Only nine porn websites are among these 500.
Media experts say that the amount of time spent by internet users on sex websites or the number of searches about sex does not determine the character of an entire nation.
Israr Ahmad, a Pakistani journalist, said the report by of Fox News had presented an untrue picture. “Higher number of per person searches does not mean that there are too many porn viewers in the country,” he said. “The real thing is the number of porn viewers. I am sure, the number of porn viewers in Pakistan is much less than in India, which has a booming porn industry.”
Mehwish Abdus Sattar, owner of a search engine and social media optimization firm, said that the perception of Pakistan being ‘pornistan’ was created because some people use black hat techniques to make quick money.
Mushtaq Ahmad, Incharge investigation team, which monitored the search trends and statistics as reported by google and alexa, said that it is the responsibility of the government to control such material. The attention of people can be diverted to healthy activities by creating useful websites, he said. There is need for a comprehensive policy in this regard, he stressed.
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