Porn more morally acceptable than copyright downloads: poll

Secretly viewing pornography online when you're married is "morally acceptable" to more Kiwis than downloading copyright music or videos, a new poll has found.

The poll, conducted by Wellington market research company UMR Research, asked 1,000 New Zealanders about their stance on internet-related moral issues.

It found that 21% of respondents felt it was acceptable for a married person to view pornography online without telling their spouse. That was higher than the 18% who thought downloading copyright music without paying was acceptable and the 13% who believed downloading copyright video was morally okay.

Interestingly, the number of people that said watching copyright TV programs “on YouTube or similar” was acceptable was higher, at 31%.

When it came to internet dating, 82% of respondents believed it was morally acceptable for single people to do it and 69% of people had no moral issue with a single person flirting online.

Nearly half of all respondents (41%) felt it was morally acceptable for a single person to view pornography online, although that proportion was much higher among male respondents (56%) than females (26%).