What the most popular PornHub search terms can teach us about changing tastes in porn

In the last few years, the most popular types of porn people search for on PornHub have changed noticeably, with 'milf', 'mom' and 'mature' terms sliding down the top 10 as 'college', 'babysitter' and particularly 'teen' rise to the top, in data provided by the site to i100.co.uk.

Huh.

The trend is very plain in the table below, but what can we glean from it?

The obvious thing would be to scream 'THINK OF THE CHILDREN' a la right wing tabloid headlines, but there may be other factors at work.

One explanation is that viewers act out fantasies involving those in a different age group, so as teenagers in the early 2000s they sought out 'milf' porn, but as they grow older lust for their teenage years.

The curve is surprisingly sharp though, with 'teen' ousting 'mom' in just a couple of years.

Trends in slang could also have made an impact, with the American Pie-era 'milf' having all but dropped out of circulation.

Another possibility is that how people search for porn is becoming more sophisticated. Previous data has shown that older people tend to search for more broad terms like 'nude' (aww), 'soft' and 'boobs', while the young know that there is such a wealth of porn out there that their searches can be more specific e.g 'Hentai'.

That being said, 'teen' is hardly a nuanced search term, so the reason behind this trend is hard to pin down completely.

Perhaps users have always desired 'teen' categories, but are only now searching for them as the act of looking at porn becomes easier to keep private?

It is fascinating data, sociologically speaking, with PornHub receiving 43 million visits a day.

More: [This is how your age determines the type of porn you watch]2