(U-WIRE) WASHINGTON — Approximately 37 percent of males between the ages of 18 to 24 admitted they had visited sexual websites in March 2000, according to a poll by Zogby International.

About 20 percent of all adults surveyed admitted to visiting a pornographic website. There was a test group of 1,031 adults nationwide. Focus on the Family hired Zogby to conduct the poll.

There were 2.7 million U.S. visitors to adult-oriented pornographic websites in January 2002, according to a poll done by the Nielsen/Net Ratings group.

Many students feel that college students visit pornographic sites more often than the general population because of a lack of parental controls and greater access to high-speed Internet.

“Free ultra-fast 24-hour Internet, plus large populations of sexually insatiable teens and 20-somethings … you do the math,” American University junior Tom Hyre said.

Sophomore Justin Schneider said people download more pornography in college not because of access, but because people can download it for free while they are not using their computers.

“My computer is always on and connected to the Internet; at home the computer went off when I did,” Schneider said.

Sophomore Naila Huq agreed that people download pornography mostly because of access.

“People see a pretty girl and they click on her,” Huq said. “Rather than searching for porn, it comes to them through AIM, ads and Hotmail.”

“Sex,” was the most searched for word online, according to a two-year survey conducted by Alexa Research. That amounts to roughly one in every 300 terms. “Porn,” “porno” and “pornography” were also popular.

Students downloaded or viewed pornography for many different reasons.

Sophomore Sam Riffle and Schneider admitted to downloading pornography because it was amusing.

“It’s like watching monkeys humping on the Discovery Channel,” Riffle said.

Senior Bridget Dooley said she considered downloading pornography out of curiosity. Sophomore Chris Burns agrees.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing,” Burns said. “I think it’s a safe way for people to explore sexuality without having to do everything in that situation.”

Junior Sean White agreed that downloading pornography was a healthy thing.

“I don’t feel that people should be ashamed of their sexuality; in the same way that repressing alcohol use creates an unhealthy view of alcohol and increases alcohol abuse, the same is true of sexuality,” White said.

Not everyone feels that pornography is empowering, however.

“I think it makes sex unreal, because it’s so much about being on the Internet and being on a computer,” sophomore Kathleen Moran said. “It cheapens sex with another person.”

Huq feels that some pornography demeans women.

“The one time my boyfriend showed me a porn, I was horrified,” Huq said. “When it’s pretty much a guy terrorizing a girl, it’s not alright.”

A lot of the positions that women are placed into in pornography seem rather subservient, Hyre said. He also said that sex could demean both sexes.

Sophomore Jessica Tacka believes that pornography can be positive but that it can warp people’s views on sex.

White and Dooley believe that not all pornography is demeaning.

“I think it’s all in the presentation of the material,” White said. “There can be something very empowering about seeing a woman naked, depending on how the image or film is framed. I think that it presents one possible way of seeing women sexually but that that view should not necessarily demean either sex.”

Dooley said she felt that as long as the depicted sex was consensual, there was no problem.

“I’m going to stay in my naivete and assume 99 percent of it is consensual,” Dooley said.

Sophomore Jessica Tacka said she worries about it warping people’s view on sex.

“I think that the alarming rate of porn downloaded by freshmen who have not had sexual contact with anyone warps their view of what it should be like,” Tacka said. “Not everyone wants to hear ‘Who’s your daddy?'”

More men than women admitted to downloading pornography. About 72 percent of visitors to pornographic websites were men and 28 percent were women, according to the Zogby International poll.

AU students agree for different reasons.

“Society teaches that porn and sex is a man thing, although we all know that’s not true,” Dooley said.

Tacka said women are more literary when it comes to sex.

“I’m into Anais Nin and I think every woman should read ‘The Story of O,'” Tacka said.

Some groups feel that pornography is morally wrong and dangerous.

“I wish guys would think about how they would feel if they had to tell their wives what they did in college,” Moran said.

Dooley’s largest concern is children finding pornography on the Internet.

White feels that pornography and sex are natural.

“Whatever your religious views, men were given penises and women were given breasts and vaginas, and those areas were given special nerve wiring that entices people to use those areas, whether in heterosexual, homosexual or auto-sexual ways,” White said. “We make sex morally wrong by imposing this idea.”

Burns feels that downloading Internet pornography is more morally correct, because it promotes safe sex and does not support pornography companies by giving them money, he said.

Tacka agreed that pornography is positive in that it promotes safe sex.

“I think that morals aren’t a societal issue; they are a personal issue,” Tacka said.