Online photos intended to assist dermatologists may be attracting users who are more interested in pornography rather than clinical studies.

Reuters reports Web site operators noticed a large increase in searches for images of genital areas. Because of this supposed misuse of the site, Dr. Christoph U. Lehmann and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University say in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology that, "anonymous misuse of collaborative archives must be anticipated, addressed and prevented to preserve their integrity and the integrity of the learning communities they support."

A little over five percent of the 7800 images on the site show genital regions. Twelve percent of the queries involve genital areas. Moreover, 37 percent of the requests for an anatomic area involved the genital region.

Users were 48 percent more likely to request images that involved children rather than adults. Twenty-one percent of the top 43 sites that referred to the dermatology service were pornographic/fetish sites.