US Net users are spending more time online each month, according to the latest stats from Jupiter Media Metrix (JMM).

Despite the downturn in dotcom land, analysts found that people in the US spent on average 20.7 hours online in July 2001 - two hours more than in the same month last year.

Figures released in the UK last week suggested that one in four Brits tip-toed to at least one porn site in June spending around 45 minutes checking out adult content.

So does this explain the surge in Net usage in the US? Are Net users over there turning to porn to help them forget their economic woes?

Apparently not. Dull old portals again topped the list of most visited sites accounting for 85 million visitors while interest in job-related sites grew by a third

According to JMM, job sites recorded 18.6 million unique visitors in July compared to 14 million six months earlier.

It seems that as the downturn begins to bite people are turning to the Net for help. It will be interesting to see how it copes with a recession. ®

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