Pornography consumption in Social Media

T he structure of a social network is fundamentally related to the interests of its members. People assort spontaneously based on the topics that are relevant to them, forming social groups that revolve around different subjects. Online social media are also favorable ecosystems for the formation of topical communities centered on matters that are not commonly taken up by the general public because of the embarrassment, discomfort, or shock they may cause. Those are communities that depict or discuss what are usually referred to as deviant behaviors [CM15], conducts that are commonly considered inappropriate because they are somehow violative of society’s norms or moral standards that are shared among the majority of the members of society. Pornography consumption, drug use, excessive drinking, illegal hunting, eating disorders, or any self-harming or addictive practice are all examples of deviant behaviors. Many of them are represented, to different extents, on social media [HIJW10,MSEB10,DC15]. However, since all these topics touch upon different societal taboos, the common-sense assumption is that they are embodied either in niche, isolated social groups or in communities that might be quite numerous but whose activity runs separately from the mainstream social media life. In line with this belief, also research has mostly considered those groups in isolation, focusing predominantly on the patterns of communications among community members [TESU15] or, from a sociological perspective, on the motivations of their members and on the impact of the group activities on their lives and perceptions [Att05]. In reality, people who are involved in deviant practices are not segregated outcasts, but are part of the fabric of the global society. As such, they can be members of multiple communities and interact with very diverse sets of people, possibly exposing their deviant behavior to the public. Here we focus on the deviant behaviour of adult content consumption and analyze in context the behavior of groups that post pornographic material online. Public depiction of pornographic material is considered inappropriate in most cultures, yet the number of consumers is strikingly high [SWF08]. Despite that, we are not aware of any study about online communities that produce that type of content interfaces with the rest of the social network. In this scenario, we contribute to shed light on three questions that are relevant to both network science and social sciences: