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How often do most gay men watch porn – and for how long?

By Fabio Crispim

Gay men’s health charity, GMFA

has conducted a survey through FS magazine, where they asked 1000 FS readers about their porn habits – and the results may surprise you.

When asked how often they view porn, 29% of gay and bisexual men said they watch porn every day, while the majority (52%) said they watch it “a few times a week”.

A further 9% said they watched once a week, while 6% watched once a fortnight and 2% just once a month.

As to how long they watch porn during each ‘session’, most (40%) revealed they watch for 15 minutes or less, while 33% said they typically watch for 15-30 minutes.

A further 20% said they usually watched porn for 30 minutes to an hour during any one sitting, while 4% said they watched for 1-3 hours at any one time.

There were some marathon viewers among the respondents however, with 3% saying they watched porn for over 3 hours and beyond in any one go.

Profile of two shirtless gay men kissing

The survey also revealed some thought-provoking findings about how gay and bisexual men learnt about sex, and its subsequent affect on their sexual behaviour.

Out of the 1000 men, 82% of them didn’t receive any education on gay sex at school, while a further 16% said they got “little to no information”.

Just 1% said that gay sex was spoken about at school, while another 1% said that they were taught about gay sex in school.

The survery goes on to reveal that the men who were not taught about gay sex in school turned to porn for lessons.

41% of men said they learned about anal sex through porn, while 34% said they learned about oral sex through the same means.

However, men also learned from partners (35% learned about anal sex and 28% learned about oral sex), friends (14% learned about anal sex and 23% learned about oral sex).

Asked what type of porn the men most preferred, anal sex came at the top of the list with 88%.

71% of men prefer watching bareback porn and another 71% enjoy watching oral sex. 69% watch group or orgy porn and 55% said they enjoyed amateur porn.

FS-bareback

FS says of the findings: “Out of the guys surveyed, 56% acknowledged that they find bareback porn more appealing. Many said that it’s because they see it as more ‘natural’.”

13% of those surveyed said that watching bareback porn has influenced their decision to have unprotected sex.

One respondent, 35-year-old Paul, said: “I’ve let my guard down a couple of times with men I think I can trust. Would I have done that had I not watched bareback porn? I can’t be certain, but I suspect it’s encouraging me to want to try what I’ve been watching.”

GMFA’s Matthew Hodson said of the findings: “Although it’s difficult to say with certainty that there’s a casual relationship between bareback porn and unprotected sex, it’s clear that many men perceive that watching bareback porn makes it more likely that they’ll have unprotected sex.”

“We have also seen studies that shows that men who favour porn with condoms are more likely to have protected sex – although it’s hard to say whether it’s the porn that dictates the behaviour of the behaviour that dictates the porn.”

Hodson adds: “Gay men who struggle with their use of chems for sex often say it’s as a result of wanting to live up to the porn fantasy of sex.”

You can read the rest of FS’s survey on their site.

Last month, we reported on the results of another study, which found that men who watch more bareback porn will engage in riskier sex.

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