Surfing adult Web sites is very popular in Asia especially among students, with a study finding between 37 and 58 percent of Internet-using students in five Asian countries visited an adult site during January.

Internet measurement company NetValue analyzed data from its panels of Internet users in China, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. The NetValue study found that Korea has the highest percentage of student Internet users who are adult Web site visitors - 58.2 percent of students on the Korean panel visited an adult Web site during January. Hong Kong ranked second with 45.4 percent and Singapore was fourth with 37.1 percent. In Singapore specifically, NetValue says the proportion does not appear to be growing right now. But NetValue says it found an increase in time spent actually looking at adult Web sites across four of the five countries it tracked. China is the biggest mover, with this duration increasing from 21.9 minutes per student Internet user in December 2000 to 47.3 minutes in January 2001. But Koreans still spend the most time logged on to adult Web sites. This was in spite of it being the only country that saw a decline in duration in January. Taiwan also registered a 36 percent increase in duration, from 41.6 in December to 56.6 minutes in January. Although Singapore's increase in duration was marginal, Loo said that another measure increased significantly. A December study of adult Web site visitors in Singapore - also by NetValue - found that 68 percent were male, 41 percent were aged 15-24 years, and 35 percent were students.