The Peak Time for Porn: A Covenant Eyes Report

A recent research project by Covenant Eyes has proven what you might suspect: viewing of porn goes way up in the wee hours of the morning.

Specifically, for Covenant Eyes users, Highly Mature (HM) sites goes from near 0% visited at 9:00 PM to about 14% between 1:00 AM and 4:00 AM (see chart below).

Let me be clear what this means from a data standpoint:

1. This is for Covenant Eyes users specifically. This important to keep in mind because other data we’ve collected suggests Covenant Eyes users are only ¹⁄₁₀ as likely to visit pornographic sites compared to the world at large.
2. This data is a sample of a full week’s worth of data from our database.
3. The data includes 2.4 million URLs, and they are only sites that were actually visited through a browser (that is, it doesn’t include the supporting URLs that might be part of a website).
4. The percentages are the percent of highly objectionable sites visited by the sample of Covenant Eyes users at that time. In other words, at 1:00 AM, 15% of all sites visited by all of the sampled Covenant Eyes users were highly objectionable.
5. The percentage of sites rated E (that is, sites acceptable for viewing by Everybody) has a simultaneous drop from between 70% and 80% down to 58%.

What this means from your standpoint is that the night hours are the most risky time to be on the Internet.

Obviously, this data shows that there are thousands of Covenant Eyes users who are tempted in the middle of the night to get to a private place and hunker down with their porn. Evidently, around 10:00 or 11:00 PM, if they are not already alone, they are waiting for others in the household to go to sleep so they can be alone.

The Guy in the Trenchcoat with Candy

If you lived on a busy highway and had a four-year-old playing in the front yard, you would keep a close eye on that child, making sure she is safe.

Imagine if, on the other side of the highway, a guy in a trenchcoat and sunglasses with candy was motioning to your four-year-old to entice her across the highway. You likely would take action, perhaps even calling authorities.

The fact is, we all live on a busy highway with the Internet, and there really is a guy in a trenchcoat over there trying to lure us into danger. The moment you turn your loving protective eyes from your loved one, they are in danger. This is true not only for children, but for adults—you and me. We all live on a busy highway with Mr. Trenchcoat over there. And what he’s luring us with can be more tempting than candy.

And all the more with the Internet, because you cannot possibly keep physical watch on your loved one. The Internet is with us when we rise, when we are at work, when we are traveling, when we lie down, when we are alone.

What You Can Do

To begin with, you can’t have eyes on someone 24 hours a day—especially if you’re asleep in the middle of the night. So a simple thing like having Covenant Eyes on all computers and phones in your home is a beginning (and really, if you don’t do this already you shouldn’t wait another minute).

But it’s much more than that, as is evidenced by the very fact that this data is generated by users of Covenant Eyes.

So what you need to do is to begin a diligent effort to remove the temptations. Kids, especially youngsters, should not have computers in their rooms when they are going to bed. If you have a router in your home, you can unplug and hide the router so there will be no Internet during the night. Make sure (spot check) that adults who are up during the night are safe.

But the best is to have honest talks with your household. Ask questions. Be sure to view the Covenant Eyes Report—including the hours of Internet use and the times that higher scoring sites are viewed. Talk about the dangers, and show them this data. Head it off at the pass with your parent/spouse/loved one skills. It’s worth the effort!

And check out our free e-books at www.covenanteyes.com/ebooks. There are valuable resources, statistics, and support articles for everyone, and share them with your household. Use this information and the Covenant Eyes reports as a starting point for building stronger relationships with your loved ones. You can help bridge the gap between technology and relationships.

If you’re single, you’re likely already alone at 11:00 PM. I urge you to get our free e-book for singles, More Than Single: Finding Purpose Beyond Porn. This e-book provides practical solutions for singles.