A sex therapist is alarmed by the amount of internet pornography being consumed in New Zealand, saying an increasing number of people are using it too much.
Photo: 123rf
The website Pornhub has rated New Zealanders as the fifth highest users of the site per capita in the world last year.
The average New Zealander viewed 173 pages on the site in 2016.
Mary Hodson is a sex therapist and a regional director for Sex Therapy New Zealand.
In her 14 years in that job, she said she had become increasingly concerned about the number of people asking for help because of their problems using pornography.
"Certainly there are people that have reached a point in their process of using porn and masturbation ... where they now can't stop doing it and it's causing problems in their lives," she said.
"To my mind, if it's become a problem and they can't resolve the problem themselves and need help then that's when we act."
She said some people who regularly used porn from a young age were coming up against problems maintaining relationships.
There were usually two different types of problematic porn users, Mrs Hodson said. Some young people met all of their sexual needs through internet porn and masturbation. The other group had chosen, for whatever reason, to substitute real-life sexual relationships with pornography.
People with an over-reliance on pornography should seek professional help early, she said.
"Don't leave it until you can't stop or you have problems ... Seek help from a qualified, experienced sex therapist if you've got a problem."
It is the fourth year Pornhub has released figures and information about usage on the website from around the world.
Its biggest per capita users were from the United States, with 221 pages on average for each American, followed by Iceland, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand.
New Zealanders spent an average of 10 minutes and 10 seconds per visit on the site, nearly half a minute longer than Australians.
Pornhub said 35 percent of visitors from New Zealand were women, higher than the global average of 26 percent.
Lesbian was the most popular search term here, followed by New Zealand and Māori.