Pornographers thinking small Pornographers see little picture

NEW YORK — Size matters in pornography, except when it comes to tiny mobile phone screens, the next frontier for erotica.

If the adult entertainment industry has its way, Americans will soon get a choice of free porn on cellphones, or at least some photographs of good-looking girls in bikinis.

Unlike in Europe, mobile porn has yet to take off in North America as carriers have been afraid of offending political and religious groups and parents concerned about children being exposed to adult content.

That might change this year as phone companies plan to relax control on their networks to allow a wider variety of gadgets and services, while introducing tools to shield minors. More advanced phones with better Web browsers like Apple Inc's iPhone also offer higher quality pictures and video.

"It will be impossible to stop the adult business exploitation of mobile entertainment," said Gregory Piccionelli, a lawyer specializing in adult entertainment at legal firm Piccionelli & Sarno.

He predicted that U.S. consumers might soon be offered free porn on mobile phones alongside paid services like live video or "adult dates," a term for prearranged sex with strangers.

The Mobile Adult Content Congress in Miami this week is devoted to discussing mobile opportunities as the porn industry seeks a new driver of growth. A surfeit of free online porn sites has cut into profits that have come mainly from DVDs, videotapes and pay-per-view or subscription-based websites.

To survive, adult entertainers need to be on top of phone trends, said Jay Grdina, president of adult entertainment provider ClubJenna Inc., which he co-founded with his then-wife, world-famous porn star Jenna Jameson.

"If you don't evolve you're going to die. . . . We need to make sure we're ready," Grdina said in an interview before his keynote speech at this week's conference, where adult entertainment and technology companies are brainstorming over how to make mobile porn a viable business.

Popular video-sharing site YouTube.com's plan to expand to about 100 million advanced cellphones might help the cause, even if it means some ClubJenna content -- which includes everything from glamour photographs of scantily clad models to hard-core videos -- is seen for free on phones. ClubJenna was sold to Playboy Enterprises Inc. in 2006.