In the U.K we have quite a sexually liberal society. Whether we are listening to Rihanna’s “S&M” on the radio, looking at page 3 girls in the Sun News Paper or watching “Sexcetera” on the T.V. If our media content is anything to go by it seems Britain has relatively embraced sex openly within our society. Phone Sex is something we see mentioned on TV, advertised in magazines however when the Government run Jobcentre Plus started advertising jobs for women willing to pose naked on a webcam and engage with sex chats on the phone. The “Daily Mail” reported public outcry. Granted this is a step up from “regular” phone sex operators but it is interesting to note the “limit” of sexual exploits in our society. But how is the phone sex industry received abroad?
In Holland a country where prostitution is openly legal and has a nursery located in the middle of Amsterdam’s Red Light District phone sex would be regarded as relatively minor. While the legal status of prostitution is a reasonable indicator of a nations attitudes and/or stance on sex chat phone lines it would be tedious to go through the legal status of prostitution in every country across the world. For those who are interested in finding out more check out http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/
Other than Holland’s notoriety for prostitution and its close proximity to the U.K. it stands as relevant due to the fact that it provides much of Britain’s Freeview viewing with Live Sex Chat “Viewings”. Recent issues were raised by Ofcom with the Dutch Media Authority over British viewers complaining that their children are able to view pornographic sex-chat phone ins on Freeview Channels such as “Babestation” and others.
In the United States of America the phone sex industry is protected by the First Amendment, which declares that Freedom of Speech is protected by the bill of rights. An example of this was seen in 1989 when the Supreme Court judged a law on banning phone sex chat lines as an infringement on the freedom of speech.
In India the Noida Cyber Cell arrested four people from telecoms company Airtel in connection with not regulating phone sex racket where customers of Airtel where sent text messages beckoning them to use their added content sex chat services
In China 97 Phone Sex Lines were shut down and 79 punished after a nationwide sweep aimed at tackling Internet pornography. The Minister of Information Industry Wang Xudong was quoted saying “This depraves social morals, and especially brings great harm to the country’s young minds,” but added that the arrests would help clean up the phone sex industry. It is interesting to note that Wang believed internet porn was morally depraved yet believed phone sex was “clean” industry in need of “cleaning up”?
So whilst china is shutting down Internet porn related phone sex chat lines to help keep them “clean” back home in the U.K we seem to be taking a different view on things. Whilst internet porn is legal here. The Women’s Support Project UK views phone sex lines as commercial sexual exploitation and therefore within the same classification of stripping, prostitution, forced marriage and trafficking.
As dramatic as the police operations mentioned above are we must remember that most these interventions were a result of breaking telecoms regulations or phone sex being linked in with web cam interactivity.
Which begs the question. How easy is it to transfer from being a phone sex operator to doubling up your résumé to become a web cam strip tease and chat star and possibly even doubling down the dark and murky road to porn and or prostitution?
Is phone sex a operating a gateway career into seedier occupations?
studentsandphonesex 