Quick curiosity check for the net. It feels like the internet used to be ours, but now… something else runs it. Drop a vote about where you think things actually went.

"Nobody. The net farms us now." < This one times 8.3 billion.

without adult entertainment
internet would not exist

Yes, internet would totally still exist without adult entertainment. I believe you may be mistaken. Perhaps your world contains much more adult entertainment than others, which may have led you to that conclusion.

No Zilla, No Net!

Key Ways Adult Entertainment Shaped the Internet:
Driving Technology Adoption: The industry pushed for high-speed internet,, forcing advancements in video compression and streaming technology in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Commercializing the Web: Adult sites pioneered online subscription models and early payment systems, creating a viable economic model for online commerce.
Shaping Hardware and Standards: Adult content helped fuel the adoption of the VHS format over Betamax and significantly accelerated the market for high-speed bandwidth, web cameras, and web browser technologies.
Data and Traffic: During the early expansion of the World Wide Web, a significant percentage of internet traffic was driven by the consumption and sharing of adult content.
Early SEO and Marketing: The industry was among the first to utilize web-based advertising, affiliate marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to drive traffic.

100% of those things you said weren't JUST adult entertainment, but many different industries contributing to their advancement. None of those things were shaped by just adult entertainment.

30 yo not know
50 yo do

did you even used the internet in the 90?
you waited 10min for a add to load
or for a hot woman picture?

Bruh. My username is literally "net." I think I'd know. The earliest I remember was my 28K modem with Bellsouth internet. It wouldn't take 10 minutes for a picture to load, but it did take a long time sometimes. Streaming was not possible and you'd have to just download the movie from whatever "source" you had and pray it wasn't a trap.