A recent headline referenced both Malema and porn – but not for what you think.

After Google announced South Africa’s rise in pornography online after gathering online data for the first week of August, the graph comparing the stats of individual searches included the words ‘porn’, ‘sex’, and, errr, ‘malema’. That put you right off, didn’t it?

fin24 explains the trends:

South African trends correlate well with international data that indicates a spike in porn searches in early August. The search term “porn” scored 100 in SA – indicating the highest possible score relative to other search results. That was significantly more than “sex” at 83 and up from a score of 68 at the end of July. The top search term in SA related to porn is “free porn” (100) which matched the top international porn search. That was followed by “porn videos” (95) and “porn sex” (80).

…and why they used Malema for comparison:

EFF leader Julius Malema has made local headlines with his corruption case and parliamentary fireworks, but as a search term, “malema” barely registers on Google search trends, scoring just 2.

Regionally, Gauteng is the leader for online searches for porn, followed by the Free State and KZN. Johannesburg rates as the top city followed by Krugersdorp and Centurion. And on a global scale, porn is on the increase despite some countries’ efforts to buckle down on ‘immoral content’, like in India.

[source: fin24]