The Porn industry’s leading website have given users in Italy, Spain and France free access to its premium service for a limited time in response to those countries strict national lockdowns. Pornhub’s premium service includes high-speed downloads, no ads, faster streaming, increased video quality and “discreet billing,” plus anytime cancellation.

Pornhub also announced that they would be donating a portion of their profits in March to help Italy during the coronavirus outbreak. According to the company, their numbers spiked after the offer of free premium content, and as of March 17 were up 11.6 percent.

Regarding Ireland specifically, figures obtained by the Sunday Independent show Pornhub reported an almost 20pc spike in searches from Irish people during the emergency, peaking on St Patrick’s Day. Searches containing the word ‘coronavirus’ and ‘porn’ on the site have also become 80pc more popular in the last 30 days, with Ireland being in the top three countries worldwide where those terms were searched.

One Sinn Fein Senator also encouraged the use of porn as an alternative to casual sexual encounters. “Social distancing applies to hook ups and sex. So explore other ways to satisfy your needs. Phone sex, cam-sex, reading erotica, watching porn or just plain old masturbation”, Senator Fintan Warfield wrote on twitter.

He also recommended advice from HIV Ireland whose patron is President Higgins and is funded by various State agencies and private bodies. While first recommending porn, they add: “If you continue to hook-up, consider reducing the number of guys you have sex with.” While underlining that the best thing to do would be “to consider a break from hooking-up”, they add: “we acknowledge that not all of us will be able or want to do so. In that situation consider all of the harm reduction tips above.”