Sex, social media, and the new age of Indian porn consumption

In 2024, the way we watch adult content has changed, and so have the mediums. Should we attribute this to the pandemic, a time when no traditional porn could be made?

Remember romantic songs from Bollywood films of the 1990s where a couple kissing would be covered with two hovering flowers? Almost three decades later, we’ve come a long way. Today, for instance,  films like The Mirror (2023), the Konkona Sen Sharma-directed segment in Lust Stories 2, tastefully portrayed a woman’s sexual needs, habits, and the shame that surrounds female masturbation, sans the objectification of the woman. In Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper (2024), actor Manav Kaul plays a male sex worker that women go to because he listens to what a woman wants in bed. A concept that would be the opposite of a “turn on” in porn.

Content on films and TV shows in India have only recently begun to present sex scenes much more aesthetically and realistically. Kajol Srinivasan, a Mumbai-based comedian, observes, “Made in Heaven (created by two women, Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti) had gay sex scenes enjoyable to watch even as a straight person. Bridgerton wasn’t just about sex, but had backstories and beautiful outfits,” says Srinivasan. Unlike traditional porn, she could identify with the women in these shows, because it puts the woman’s narrative in the sexual realm. 

“Having the female gaze shown in popular fiction tells women that sex isn’t just an act about giving someone else pleasure, but also yourself. So, you communicate better. In this sense, art guides you in life,” adds Ankita, 34, a sales executive in Mumbai.

The evolution of porn consumption

In 2024, the way India consumes porn is shifting. No longer confined to traditional sites such as PornHub, Porn555 and Xvideos, adult content is now circulating through platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Telegram—discreet, fragmented, and often hidden in plain sight.

This shift isn’t just because we consume most of our content on social media today, but also due to the porn ban in India. In 2015, the Department of Telecommunications, under the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, banned 857 pornographic websites. However, it lifted the ban again, asking the ISPs to ban only websites featuring child pornography. Today, the selling and distribution of pornographic material is illegal in India under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code. India blocked more than 800 pornography websites overnight, citing access to porn websites a cause for causing social nuisance and sexual violence. Despite this, a 2018 Pornhub poll ranked India third among the most porn-watching countries in the world. As mainstream porn becomes less accessible in India, social media is filling the void.  Furthermore, the anonymity of Tumblr and Reddit have made it easier for people to share porn. 

Ishan, a 30-year-old  restaurateur in Noida, first stumbled upon thirst traps—or photographs designed to deliberately entice viewers—on Instagram in 2022. Since Instagram tracks user interest rather than behaviour, his feed quickly filled up with several thirst trap content within weeks. X, formally known as Twitter, too has a plethora of porn. You simply need to type in the keyword. The question then is no longer just about what we watch, but how these platforms are reshaping our perceptions of sex, power, and consent in a digital world.

So what qualifies as porn? 

In 2014, pornstar Mia Khalifa spoke about wanting to change the narrative in the porn industry, citing that she had made only $12,000 in three months. Enter OnlyFans, launched in 2016, which not only enabled creators to make money directly, but also gave them agency over the content they put out and their own bodies. Newer mediums of adult content where the creator chooses the way they talk about themselves and their services, gives them agency over their own work. 

“So many women, including me, would consider posting a thirst trap, but not being part of a porn video. With the control Instagram gives you comes your implied consent. There will be less shame in that, as you did it because you wanted to,” says Ayushi Jagad, 32, CEO of MeetCuteDot in Mumbai.

A thirst trap doesn’t come with the same shame as “porn” does because of the agency you have over your body and your work when you post. Plus, it’s simply a picture designed to entice people. When you know exactly what you’re doing when you post a steamy shot captioned, “felt cute, might delete later”, you aren’t really deleting it later. 

“Anyone posting a thirst trap online is only asking for admiration. There’s nothing wrong with that. Social media is a space where people seek validation,” says Ishan, whose relatives post thirst traps that the family is okay with. “There’s a lot more self-respect in it. The fact that these snaps disappear in 24 hours is a safety padding. The temporariness reduces the realness of it,” adds Ishan. Plus, there’s a certain creativity in doing so because you can’t post nudes on Instagram. If a thirst trap account gets 10,000 followers, one person reporting you could get your account blocked. 

The dark sides of new-age porn

As much as newer mediums have women introducing the female gaze into the picture, adult content is still dominated by what a straight man would usually like to see. According to a study from 2024, Instagram has an almost equal number of women and men users, yet the viewership of men is higher, globally. So, if a creator wants to cater to the numbers game, they have to cater to the male gaze. “In order to get likes on a post, creators will have to upload something that maximum viewers, who are men, will like. But at least the creators are doing it because they want to, not because they are being asked to,” says Bharat, a 24-year-old lawyer from Delhi.  

In 2023, Bharat encountered a case where a man injured his wife while attempting anal sex, believing it was okay to do so because he’d seen it in porn. “Porn gets violent because they view women as just sex objects,” says Bharat.

Bharat’s story is just one example of how skewed perceptions of sex continue to be in India. Porn has long been an exploitative industry for women, with the categories like step-sisters or MILFs, pandering to the male gaze, leading men to always assume (shockingly) that women enjoy being spanked or called degrading names in bed. “Porn portrays women being happy in doing anything in bed,” says Srinivasan, which takes away the concept of consent in porn. But it is now being introduced via thirst traps and OnlyFans. 

YouTube videos are still a murky territory. Homemade adult videos that have been around for years are now finding a new life and a wider audience. There’s an entire genre of staged YouTube videos (15,000 to 45,000 views) of men in villages groping women in the guise of teaching them how to ride a bike, highlighting the type of content that still caters only to the male gaze, perpetuating harmful narratives about sex. Also, one doesn’t know if the woman’s consent about the video being shared on a public platform was taken. 

There’s shame that comes your way when you put yourself out there sexually in a country where talking about sex is still taboo. Ankita made a separate account to upload her erotica sketches on Instagram. When she received lewd comments, she decided to make the account anonymous. “If Indians get to know there’s a woman behind it, she will get flak,” she says. 

The assumptions and shame that comes from the dominating male gaze in porn extend to real life. “I live alone. If people in my society see me wearing a short skirt three times, I will be called promiscuous,” says Srinivasan, who does sex comedy stand-up shows. 

Porn has always existed in India innovatively

A decade ago, there were soft porn video-renting stores in cities in India. MMS porn was being transferred via Bluetooth or InfraRed, and most Boomer men resorted to adult magazines. Then came pen drives and CDs with downloaded content, easily passed around among friend circles. 

Writer and comedian Navin Noronha, 33, who grew up in Bhayandar near Mumbai, recalls watching porn (for as little as ₹ 30) in a local hall that had marketed it as a mainstream film. “Public washrooms were decorated with crude drawings of penises or breasts on the walls,” he recalls. 

“Indians act like they have high morals,” says Noronha, who has seen men playing bhajans on trains while sharing porn clips via WhatsApp. “Some of it is brutal. Middle-aged Indian men have no middle ground. They don’t approach sex with empathy,” adds Noronha, who often references sex in his comedy routine. “One can use humour to educate people," Noronha adds.

"Adult content in India is not looked at as art,” he adds. 

As long as there’s disparity in how it’s easier for women to get sex compared to men, adult content will always be made to cater to the male gaze, further reinforcing male-driven desires in an almost “alpha” manner. Women are earning via such content and while they have agency, it still means catering to the male gaze because you're catering to the viewership. “Maybe getting paid to cater to the male gaze is the only way to manipulate it?” wonders Jagad.

OnlyFans and thirst traps are taking people back to an era where you were dependent on one source for porn. “Except 15 years ago, you didn‘t know what you would get and there was no choice. Today, you know what you want to watch, and it’s available with the creator’s consent,” says Ishan. That seems to be the only progress we’ve made.

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