A Google Employee Works on a Laptop in Front of a Mural of the New York City Skyline, at the New York City Company
A Google Employee Works on a Laptop in Front of a Mural of the New York City Skyline, at the New York City Company Reuters

A recent study suggests women are extremely susceptible to get addicted to online pornography as men.

According to the report by the Telegraph, previous research reported as many as 17 per cent of women found themselves as "addicted" to online porn.

A German study concluded that heavy use of pornography could turn some women “hypersexual," a personality disorder which involves spending excessive time thinking about sexual fantasies and urges or staying engaged in sexual behaviour.

Researchers found out that behavioural patterns in hypersexual women matched those previously witnessed in men with the similar types of symptoms, including pornography dependence, excessive masturbation and promiscuity.

Pornography is known to produce more Internet traffic than anything else online and has been newly termed as the new cocaine.

In this recent work, scientists looked at the respective sex addiction among heterosexual women who regularly checked for Internet pornography.

The results was published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.

As explained by the Telegraph, Professor Matthias Brand of Duisburg-Essen University in Germany, along with his team, explored the impact of anticipating and receiving sexual gratification in the development of cybersex addiction.

The research involved 102 young women, half of them were Internet porn users and the others were not. It was followed by assessment of their addiction to sex.

A specific experiment was also used to analyse their respective level of arousal when shown 100 pornographic pictures. Their cravings for sex were also observed.

"Results indicated internet porn users rated pornographic pictures as more arousing and reported greater craving due to pornographic picture presentation compared with non-users. Brand said, "Moreover craving, sexual arousal rating of pictures, sensitivity to sexual excitation, problematic sexual behaviour and severity of psychological symptoms predicted tendencies toward cybersex addiction in internet porn users."

It was reported that external factors such as being in a relationship, the number of sexual contacts and their satisfaction with them and use of interactive cybersex were not related with the condition.

According to Brand, the results were in line with those observed for heterosexual males through previous works.

According to the editor of the journal, Dr Brenda Wiederhold, even though the study population was limited to women under 30 , it still provided enough indication of cybersex addiction in women.