According to a new UK Government report 10 percent of UK adult men have used a prostitute for companionship or sex .

The report shows that around 2.4 million men have paid for sex at least once in their lives and up to 90 per cent of those who do are married or in steady relationships.

The report, called Tackling Demand for Prostitution, is aimed at helping MPs decide on future strategies to control the UK adult sex trade.

The latest research, combining data from more than 180 studies , is being published just months before a new law is likely to come into force. It will mean men caught paying for sex with prostitutes within the UK who have been trafficked or pimped will be fined up to £1,000.

The findings show the average age of male clients in the UK is between 33 - 41, research also shows that 50 to 90 per cent of these men are in stable relationships or married.

It also reveals the astonishing figure by one of the studies that Britain's estimated 80,000 prostitutes saw 64million clients in one year.

They pay around £60 a time, making the prostitution industry worth close to £4billion a year.

The law, part of the Policing and Crime Act 2009, would lead to users being fined up to £1000 if caught with a prostitute.

Although Home Office chiefs admitted there were "many gaps in the research", its key findings showed:

That men seek out sex for a variety of reasons including "curiosity, risk or excitement" and most men that visit prostitutes are in a married relationship .

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says the Facebook and MySpace social networking Internet sites have removed the accounts of 150 sex offenders based in the state, after reviewing information provided by police.

Blumenthal says 127 profiles belonging to registered sex offenders were deleted recently by Facebook, and another 22 were deleted recently by MySpace.

He says more than 111,000 sex offenders' profiles have now been removed from the two sites since he and officials in other states began working with Facebook and MySpace in December 2006 to crack down on Internet predators.



More than 680 Connecticut sex offenders' profiles have now been removed from the sites.
Blumenthal said they have been working with social networking sites on stronger means of age and identity verification, which should be technologically feasible.

“The great danger to children is people lying about their names and their ages, posing as teenagers when they may be 30-plus-year-old men, luring young girls or men to parks where they encounter sexual assault,” Blumenthal said.

While several industries have been labeled “recession-proof,” porn has historically best lived up to that title. No matter how bad the economy, adult entertainment companies have managed to survive—if not thrive.

Until now.

The latest financial crisis, mixed with rampant piracy problems, has taken its toll. Profits are down and porn production studios are folding at a pace faster than anyone would have imagined two years ago.

Exactly how hard the industry is being hit is hard to gauge. While porn is regularly described as a $13 billion industry, some insiders question the accuracy of that number—saying the true figure is impossible to determine, given how many companies hide their true nature in tax filings.

“I’ve never bought off on the amount of money that news articles suggest we are making,” says Dan O’Connell, president of Girlfriends Films. “We are one of the top companies—certainly in the top 10—when it comes to numbers of DVD’s sold for a new release and I don’t see how the industry can be making that sort of money. Girlfriends Films is a privately-held company and our tax returns show us as being an ‘amusement’ company. As such, accurate revenue figures just aren’t available.”

For the first time, porn is showing signs of vulnerability. This was evident at January’s Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, which took up just one floor of the Sands Convention Center—and had lots of room to spare, compared to the two floors that were filled last year. And while the industry is trying to find a way back to its glory days, no one seems certain about the best formula to get there.

Consumer interest certainly hasn’t diminished. Despite the smaller number of vendors, the same Expo in Las Vegas saw a 14 percent jump in fan attendance, topping 22,000. The trick for companies is figuring out how to capitalize on that interest.

Parody films, such as Hustler’s "This Ain't Star Trek XXX" and "Not Three's Company XXX," are a growing trend for some studios. Others, like Digital Playground, are betting on high production values to attract customers away from free online offerings.

“My philosophy is: Water is free (too), but people still pay for it in a bottle,” says Digital Playground founder Ali Joone.

Digital Playground says it spent up to $10 million to create its biggest film—“Pirates”. It was a significant gamble, but one that paid off. Joone says he was hoping to make the money back within two years, but when the film’s trailer went viral , he recouped those expenses in pre-orders alone.

That success isn’t preventing the company from diversifying, though. Digital Playground recently launched a line of sex toys that were created in-house. (The company had previously worked with a third party, but wasn’t happy with either the revenue split or the quality of the products.) It also launched a video on demand channel with Avail-TVN, the country's largest VOD distribution service, at the start of 2010.

Avatar is set to become a real 'blue' adult movie as porn giants Hustler look to make a porn parody of the James Cameron hit entitled, This Ain’t Avatar XXX.

This Ain’t Avatar XXX may also give Cameron some closure after being forced to cut some sexuality from his movie to get a PG-13 rating.

The release of the Hustler 'homage' DVD follows the company’s success with sex parodies of TV shows Star Trek, Beverly Hills 90210 and Saved By The Bell.

The US porn industry has a history of making parodies of popular Hollywood movies. Some of the funniest risqué titles include Shaving Ryan’s Privates; Dyke Hard; Pulp Friction, White Men Can’t Hump and Saturday Night Beaver.

Upcoming titles for the Hustler Video line also include "This Ain't CSI XXX: Chatsworth," "This Ain't Curb Your Enthusiasm XXX," "This Ain't Glee XXX" and "This Ain't I Dream of Jeannie XXX."

The news comes a day after Cameron's "Avatar" was named the Best Feature at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards.

Amsterdam's deputy mayor yesterday proposed laws to restrict brothel owners from their doors during certain hours of the day and have raised the minimum age for prostitutes from 18 to 23 in order to fight the forced sex trade.

Lodewijk Asscher said prostitution should be banned between 4am and 8am. “Only the biggest creeps and boozers are walking around at those hours,” he said on Dutch radio. “Women really dread working then and sometimes the most vulnerable are used.”

Amsterdam's union for prostitutes said it was against Mr. Asscher's proposal because the early morning hours are among the most lucrative for many women on the streets of Amsterdam.

“This is not a good idea, this is the time when the prostitutes can make the most money,” said Metje Blaak, a spokeswoman for the Rode Draad group. She also said raising the minimum legal age would force more women into underground, illegal brothels.

The Netherlands legalised prostitution in 2000 but authorities have toughened their stance to fight organised crime and clean up inner city areas.

The city council launched major clean up of the city centre red light district in 2008 with the aim of cutting back on crime and forced prostitution, and taking the area more upmarket.