Why so much porn online?

Porn affiliates is a big part of the answer, the Wall Street Journal reports. They're easy-to-set-up small businesses that don't produce or sell pornography but rather operate multiple Web sites that display free porn images which link to porn retail sites in exchange for a percentage of the subscription sales they drive. More than porn retailers, these are also the kind of porn sites kids are mostly likely to stumble upon. "The lure of big bucks has saturated the Internet with affiliate sites - and, by extension, free porn," according to the Journal. "Now, there are so many free images and video clips that affiliate companies say it has grown more challenging to get users to sign up with pay sites." The Journal adds that "the fierce competition has led to something of a no-holds-barred atmosphere among some affiliates," resulting in huge porn-spam campaigns that have led to Federal Trade Commission lawsuits under the CAN-SPAM Act and other automated-distribution tactics. The number of affiliates is hard to come by, the Journal said, but they're all over the world, and the pay sites work hard to keep them happy, plying them with bonuses and gifts, such as the TAG Heuer watch just sent to an 18-year-old in Russia "who runs a handful of affiliate Web sites."