Dialing Up Porn on Your Cell Phone

ByABC News via logo
December 13, 2005, 4:59 PM

Dec. 13, 2005 — -- Harvey Kaplan -- a pioneer in online pornography -- now sees a new source of profits: mobile devices such as cell phones and video iPods.

"This thing is going to take off," he said. "There are hundreds of companies lined up to capitalize."

According to one estimate, worldwide mobile porn sales will be a billion dollars this year -- nearly double that of last year.

Porn star Ron Jeremy has licensed his name to a company that sells porn for the cell phone.

"You'd be amazed how good the technology is right now," said Jeremy. "If you actually punch up an image of a beautiful woman, it'll be pretty crystal clear."

Family groups and anti-porn activists are up in arms, warning parents that the high-tech gadgets they buy for their children this holiday season may end up as porn-delivery devices.

"Parents are able to monitor what their kids get at a computer station that is set in their homes. But now with these mobile devices, you have porn walking around and there are all kinds of opportunities for kids to be exposed to it," said Charmaine Yoest of the advocacy group Family Research Council.

The nation's largest cell phone service provider, Cingular Wireless, recently introduced tools for parents to help block porn from mobile phones with Internet access.

But the teenagers interviewed by ABC News were supremely confident they could get around any filter.

"There's parental controls on computers, but kids still look at porn on computers," one teen said.

Family groups are pressuring the government to crack down. Until that happens, parents and pornographers find themselves in rare agreement: The best way to prevent children from accessing smut is parental vigilance.

ABC News' Dan Harris filed this report for "World News Tonight."