YouPorn - A Pornographic Clone of YouTube

YouPorn (youporn.com) which was officially launched in August of 2006 is a video sharing website in the fashion of YouTube. Using Flash technology and the speed of broadband internet users can upload their homemade amateur pornography onto the website for the world to see. Like YouTube the materials on the website are completely free to view and anyone of any age can easily enter the site despite a warning on the splash page to not enter if you are under 18 years of age.

In its short time in operation YouPorn has seen over 12,000 videos uploaded to the site (an average of 1,000 per month) with some of the most popular content receiving over a million views a week. YouPorn is rapidly becoming one of the internets most visited destinations. Although the website is still in its Beta version it also features a chat room, dating service and web cams. The website is mostly ad supported. Anonymity, Criticism and Censorship

The creators of YouPorn have attempted, to date, to remain anonymous. This may largely be due to criticism of the site. Many concerns have been raised about the ease of access to the site by minors. Another problem is that the videos usually feature more than one person and there is no way to know if all parties on the video have consented to appearing on the site. Many of the video titles say Hidden Cam or My Ex-Girlfriend. Some women have been scrambling to YouPorn to check to see if their once private sex tapes are now very public.

Another disturbing problem that has fallen under criticism is the inability to verify the age of anybody appearing in the amateur films. Speculation exists that some of the tapes might be featuring children. So much controversy exists about the website that the German Google (google.de) has eliminated the site from search results. Google said that the "German regulatory body reported illegal material." YouPorn is #1

YouPorn is not the first website to try and apply YouTube like technology to a pornography model. PornoTube was launched a month earlier and received some moderate press and success for a while. But YouPorn left them in the dust in September when it became the #1 adult website on the internet according to Alexa ( a subsidiary of Amazon.com that records internet traffic). The success of YouPorn has a number of other pornographic websites trying to jump on the bandwagon.

YouPorn's success is most likely a byproduct of the website's ease of use and remarkable functionality. The videos are very easy to download and no registration of any kind is needed to watch the content available. YouPorn, unlike almost every other site on the World Wide Web, does not even require an E-mail address to use the site.