LEVEL 1 - 75 OF 119 STORIES Copyright 1995 Associated Press AP Online June 28, 1995; Wednesday 06:47 Eastern Time SECTION: Domestic, non-Washington, general news item LENGTH: 694 words HEADLINE: Online Pornography Thriving DATELINE: PITTSBURGH BODY: Cyberspace has taken the embarrassment out of obtaining pornography in all its manifestations from bestiality to pedophilia to sadomasochism and consumers are taking advantage, a study shows. Carnegie Mellon University's Martin Rimm led a team of more than two dozen researchers in the most comprehensive study to date of online pornography. For 18 months, they surveyed 917,410 sexually explicit images, stories and video clips available by computer and studied computer records of online activity. AP Online, June 28, 1995 ''We can determine what kind of pornography people really look at, not what they say they look at,'' Rimm said Tuesday. The study found pornography is one of the largest, if not the largest, recreational uses of computer networks. Nearly all the users are men. Half the 8.5 million images called up in the last five years from commercial adult bulletin boards nationwide depicted pedophilia, bestiality, bondage, sadomasochism, transsexualism and sex involving urination or defecation. ''Until recently, these types of images have often been hard to obtain, even in many adult stores,'' Rimm said. ''The World Wide Web is making access to many of these images as easy as a few clicks of a button.'' In a typical week, 83.5 percent of the digitized photos transmitted over Usenet news groups were pornographic, the researchers found. In November, Carnegie Mellon restricted students' Internet access to computer pornography after the researchers disclosed preliminary data about the availability of the material. AP Online, June 28, 1995 Galdino Pranzarone, a Roanoke College psychology professor, said pornography always has quickly seized on new technology. He said most computer pornography is harmless, and many of the people looking at it are only curious. ''It's the safest sex there is,'' he said. ''You can't catch anything through your computer.'' The study found pornography use in 2,000 cities in 40 countries, including some with harsh penalties for viewing it. Cyberspace has made pornography more convenient and more personalized because users can choose the images they find appealing without having to buy a magazine or video, Rimm said. The study, to be published this week in the Georgetown Law Journal, began as an inquiry into how businesses could market on the Internet. The focus shifted when researchers realized commercial pornographers were among the most effective marketers, using computer bulletin boards to advertise at no cost. In some cases, the researchers easily could determine the identities of the people using computer pornography. Rimm said that raises questions about the privacy rights of computer users. AP Online, June 28, 1995 Jules B. Gerard, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said most computer users know there is no absolute privacy in cyberspace. ''There is a real issue about whether anybody is entitled to privacy when they are on a computer,'' he said. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: June 28, 1995