Optenet 2008 International Internet Trends Study

The number of websites promoting anorexia and bulimia has increased 470 percent since 2006, according to Optenet research.

by Optenet [September 25, 2008]

1. Executive summary

Optenet, a leading global IT security company and a provider of intelligent, integrated content security solutions, today announced the results of a report showing that adult content on the internet—including pro-anorexia and bulimia, racism, violence and child pornography—has significantly increased since the end of 2006.

The report utilizes Optenet's unique traffic analysis and classification engine, which combines artificial intelligence with traditional content filtering technology to categorize website content. The report tracks Internet content trends since the end of 2006, based on a random sampling of nearly three million websites from around the world. Key findings include:

• Pro-anorexia and bulimia websites have increased by 470 percent;
  
  
• Pages associated with violent content increased 125 percent;
  
  
• websites promoting racism experienced a 70 percent increase;
  
  
• Pro-drug websites increased by 62 percent; and
  
  
• Content related to child pornography increased 18 percent.

The Optenet study showed that although pornography as a total percentage of Internet content has actually decreased slightly since 2006, it still is by far the largest category of content on the Internet, representing 35 percent of all websites. Online shopping represents the second biggest category (10.5 percent), followed by travel (7 percent), advertising sites (6 percent) and sports (4.5 percent).

Originally launched 10 years ago as an internet service provider dedicated to creating a safer web experience for minors, Optenet transformed into a web content security vendor that provides products and technology to service providers and enterprises.

Sample data from the report:

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To view the full report, visit the Optenet website [.pdf].