The consumption of pornography in Australia is rising rapidly, an analysis of online porn viewing has found, as the federal government considers face scans to confirm people’s ages before they view sexually explicit material.

The volume of traffic to Pornhub, an adult video site, from Sydney viewers increased by 205 per cent between 2014 and 2017, or 5 per cent a month - with the largest increase in traffic from mobile phones.

There was an even greater increase in the volume of traffic to the adult entertainment site from viewers in Melbourne, with the number of sessions increasing by 222 per cent or an average of 5.5 per cent each month.

The analysis of porn viewing habits by Paul Maginn, an associate professor of urban/regional planning at the University of Western Australia, found the majority of Australians use their mobile phone to watch online porn, including 59 per cent in Sydney and 57 per cent in Melbourne.