Independent pornography

Amateur pornography is a category of pornography that features models, actors or non-professionals performing without pay, or actors for whom this material is not their only paid modeling work. Reality pornography is professionally made porn which seeks to emulate the style of amateur pornography. Amateur porn has been called one of the most profitable and long-lasting genres of pornography.

The introduction of Polaroid cameras in the 1960s allowed true amateurs to self-produce pornographic photography immediately and without the need for sending them to a film processor, who might have reported them as violations of obscenity laws. One of the more significant increases in amateur pornographic photography came with the advent of the internet, image scanners, digital cameras, and more recently camera phones. These have enabled people to take private photos and then share the images almost instantly, without the need for expensive distribution, and this has resulted in an ever growing variety and quantity of material. It has also been argued that in the Internet age it has become more socially acceptable to make and view amateur porn. Starting in the 1990s, pornographic images were shared and exchanged via online services such as America Online (AOL). Photo sharing sites such as Flickr and social networking sites such as MySpace have also been used to share amateur pornographic photographs - usually nudes but also hardcore photos. A more private and easy to control method of sharing photos is through Yahoo or Google Groups which have access restricted to group members.

Recently it has come to attention the potential dangers to teenagers or children, who may be unaware of the consequences, using their Camera phones to make videos and images which are then shared amongst their friends (see Sexting). Images initially meant to be shared between couples can now be spread around the world. The result is now a small but growing amount of online amateur porn depicting underage models, created by the young people themselves.

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