By Erika Icon

YNOT – Porn is everywhere. Gone are the days of peep show booths at the back of XXX bookstores and pay-per-view options in seedy motels. Nowadays anyone with an internet connection can get his or her fix almost anywhere. According to a German therapist, people who watch adult content at work are fueling a meteoric rise in the volume of material consumed … and the amount of money changing hands.

Berlin-based therapist Dr. Christoph Ahlers has studied porn extensively. His research indicates that every day, 60 million people view XXX movies on the world’s largest free-porn website and “two thirds of the visits were made by people at work.” Ahlers shared his perspective about medical and psychological treatments for so-called sex addiction as part of the recent Salzburg Congress.

Europeans must be leading the pack, judging by a Harris Interactive poll conducted in July. The Harris study found only 3 percent of Americans admits to watching porn during work hours. Of the 64 percent of participants who admitted to watching porn at work, men were 20-percent more likely culprits than women. Harris pollsters said the percentage of people viewing porn at work could be much higher than the survey indicated, because the study specifically looked at video, which required a level of honesty and may have skewed the numbers.

In March 2010, Nielsen reported 21 million Americans — or 29 percent of the adult workforce — accessed porn sites at work in that month alone.

Of course there are ways to watch at work without getting caught. A Business Insider revealed some useful tips:

• Mask your IP address with a free proxy service to hide your identity.
• Use the alt-tab shortcut in Windows to switch seamlessly back and forth between active screens.
• Watch on a smaller screen (the one on a mobile phone, for example).
• Install a privacy screen on your monitor.
• Attach mirrors to your computer so no one can sneak up on you.
• Use Vanishd.com to hide your dirty movies behind an Excel spreadsheet.
• Use a remote desktop utility to access your home computer so the porn never touches your machine at work.
• Employ your brower’s private-browsing utility.
• Empty your cache frequently.

The bottom line? Employees viewing porn at work has become so commonplace that many companies and governmental agencies now incorporate a specific “no porn” clause in their workplace codes. Violating workplace rules can result in immediate dismissal, and in the case of public officials, public shaming and/or criminal charges.