The downloaded files were in so-called 'binary' form, which had to be converted into a visual format, requiring at least some minimal technical knowledge. That technology still exists and is still widely used, but the Web, on the other hand, is loaded with graphics and the huge number of pornographic sites advertise their wares not unlike the magazines at the newsagent's. However, recognizing the pressure for regulation, the information providers, while prominently displaying the blue ribbon of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, also try hard to promote a responsible image of themselves. Typically, this will require the user to click a button confirming that they are over 18, that it is not illegal to receive pornographic material in the area where they live and that such material does not offend against prevailing community standards. Most seem also to support the technological 'locks' which parents can impose on the Web on their machines.
Most sites offer free samples, a kind of loss-leader to entice the user into the site.
Actually entering the site requires a fee, typically to be paid by credit card or telephone bill. In the images of heterosexual acts, anal intercourse and fellatio seem to be quite common. Some sites also offer 'movie' clips, which seem often to show fellatio and cunnilingus. Straightforward vaginal intercourse seems to be fairly uncommon, which concurs with the findings of the Carnegie-Mellon survey of newsgroups. The verbal descriptions of what is available to the paying site visitor do sometimes appear to be designed to titillate paedophilic interest by stressing the youth of the woman featured, typically 'teens', but I have seen little evidence that someone who pays the fee will find anything 'out of the ordinary', simply because it would be illegal - which is in fact conceded in the statements on sites claiming to show 'barely legal teens' etc. that none of their models is under 18.