PORT MORESBY – Papua New Guinea is the most pornography-obsessed country in the world, according to Google Trends.

PNG has a population of less than eight million people and low rates of internet use, but has the greatest percentage of searches for the words “porn” and “pornography” compared to the nation’s total searches.

Eight of the top 10 nations porn-obsessed listed were developing countries in Africa, with Fiji ranking in ninth place.

“Working with young men, we find that porn is very accessible,” said Thelma Kavanamur, communications officer with the Papua New Guinea youth organisation The Voice Inc.

“It’s on their laptops at the universities, it’s on their phone, they watch it in their rooms, they can be standing by on the streets and watching it – I have seen that personally.”

In recent years, smart phones have allowed developing countries to leapfrog computer technologies and connect once-isolated communities to a new world of explicit images.

“What the internet has facilitated is the eclipsing of boundaries of time and space,” said Dr Michael Flood, a senior lecturer in Sociology at the University of Wollongong who has published papers on pornography.

“So it’s possible for people in any part of the world with an internet connection to view an extraordinarily large range of pornographic material, quite regardless of the laws or regulatory regimes in their own countries.”

While there is no academic research focusing on PNG’s internet porn habits, the situation in other parts of the world suggests conservative Christian values might actually be driving the desire for pornography.

“For example in the US, Utah, which is a very conservative state, is the number one state to request pornography,” said Dr Milton Diamond, emeritus professor at the University of Hawai’i’s Pacific Centre for Sex and Society.

PNG has some of the highest rates of sexual and domestic violence in the world.

A study published in the scientific journal The Lancet, found 59 per cent of men in PNG’s Autonomous Region of Bougainville had raped their partner and 41 per cent had raped a woman who was not their partner.

Other studies used by the government suggest a third of PNG women are raped, with two-thirds of women experiencing physical or sexual violence.

But the link between pornography and sexual violence remains hotly debated by researchers.

“I really don’t think they’re related, I think there are other causes for violence and aggression,” Dr Diamond said.

“Most pornography does not have aggression – yes there is ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ or whatever – but most websites are plain old vanilla type of sex.”

However, Dr Flood thinks there is a link between porn and rape.

“There’s good evidence that using pornography – and particular violent pornography –is associated with a tolerance for sexual violence, a tolerance for rape,” he said.

“Not only that but pornography is associated with an increased participation in sexual violence, an increased rate of perpetration.”

But Dr Flood said pornography was by no means the only cause of sexual violence, especially in a country like PNG.

He said wider gender inequalities, cultural attitudes towards sex and overall levels of violence were contributing factors.

“PNG is a country with high levels of all forms of inter-personal violence – so you’d expect also to see high levels of violence against women,” Dr Flood said.

“Then with high pornography use thrown into that mix, I think it’s likely to increase or shape those forms of sexual violence in various ways, but pornography itself is not the only determinant of rates of sexual violence.”

The PNG government is planning to introduce an internet filter to block pornographic websites, according to the country’s chief censor, Steven Mala.

“We are not trying to control the medium of communication but we are trying to filter the rubbish that is supplied free online which spoils the mindset of the young children of Papua New Guinea,” Mala said.

Mala said the internet filter was expected to cost almost $2 million but it was not clear when it would be introduced.

This month, the PNG Censorship Office banned the movie ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ in Port Moresby cinemas because of concerns about scenes of bondage and explicit sex.

An online campaign against the film called “Fifty Kina, Not 50 Shades” had been encouraging people to donate the money they might have used to see the film to help victims of domestic abuse instead.

“I really saw that there was a movie glamorising or suggesting that it’s okay to be in a relationship like this,” campaign coordinator Kari Taviri said.

“It isn’t just something that we read about or a statistic or a number that we see, for everyday Papua New Guineans it’s the reality.”