SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Is the end of the “celebrity sex tape” era approaching? Perhaps, according to Australian researcher Dr. Kath Albury.Albury is the co-author of The Porn Report, a recently published book based on data she collected with support from the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects division. She has been researching the online porn industry for 10 years. Because neither porn consumers nor celebrities and other amateurs who inadvertently let their escapades escape into the wild are stupid or overtly self-destructive, Albury believes the fascination with the “sex tape” phenomenon may be wearing thin.

“The technology has probably gotten ahead of us here and the penny hasn’t dropped yet for a lot of people posting this material yet,” Albury told News.com.au. “But they will come to realize there is still a lot of stigma attached to it. You and your friends may not have a problem with it, but your parents or your employers could, and once the image is out there you can’t get it back.”

According to the University of New South Wales professor, sex tapes may have expanded the notoriety of a few celebutantes and notorious Hollywood bad boys, but for almost everyone else such public displays of affection can be career suicide.

Albury said her research leads her to believe that in the future, most “amateur” explicit content found on the Web will have been put there by people who were very aware what they were doing when they were doing it. It will continue to be popular, but it won’t have the “shock and awe” factor attributed to the original leaked gems. Instead, it will be produced by exhibitionists for voyeurs, providing a truly authentic experience for both sides of the equation.

“Some people do it as a sort of community service and are not really interested in making money off it,” she told News.com.au.

That’s not entirely comforting to the adult entertainment industry, already watching its revenues decline faster than the polar ice caps. However, porn star Belladona and AdultShop.com managing director Malcom Day told the news service they believe major adult brands will endure. Day said deep marketing pockets will be the key for studios, and Belladona indicated the loyal fan bases of some stars would “shield” them.

“I don’t feel threatened,” the star of more than 250 films and director and producer of several others told News.com.au. “I really don’t try and think about that stuff. I just try to focus on what I’m doing. DVD sales have gone down a little bit, but if people are going to like a certain style of sex they are going to follow that person around.”