Regulating online erotica ? ethnographic
observations of a UK-based adult
entertainment provider

Axel Klein

Axel Klein is a Team Leader at
the Cocaine Route Monitoring
and Support Project,
CHSS, University of Kent,
Canterbury, UK.

Abstract

Purpose ? The purpose of this paper is to throw a new light on the online adult entertainment industry and
help remove the stigma associated with it.
Design/methodology/approach ? An ethnographic approach was taken, with participant observation and
in-depth interviews with a number of informants.
Findings ? This is an environment where female performers can enjoy good income opportunities and work
in a safe environment. It also provides a high level of job security for technical support staff.
Research limitations/implications ? The study used a sample sample size with no access to clients.
Practical implications ? It is important that UK regulation remains light handed to avoid pushing the
industry off shore.
Originality/value ? The paper provides new data on the working environment in camming studios and
positive aspects of job security and the equitable distribution of profits.

Keywords Regulation, Online, Sex work, Adult entertainment, Camming, Erotica

Paper type Viewpoint

One of the first things that a Studio 66 performer has to establish with a client is that they will
never meet. For some punters this is a deal breaker and they take their fancies elsewhere.
But enough find the prospect of a digital relationship sufficiently satisfactory to make this TV
channel a profitable enterprise. The services provided range from daytime chat through to
one-to-one explicit adult interaction with striptease and simulated masturbation after 11 p.m.
In return clients pay between ?1.50 and ?5 per minute.

Filmed at the company?s studio in London the shows appear on three live satellite TV channels. There
are also a website and webcam channels that allow the performers more flexibility as they can work
from home or any other location. For them, modern erotica provides a rare opportunity for cashing in
on good looks and the defiance of social convention to achieve life style aspirations. Pay-to-view real
life erotic performances by a single performer[1] that are transmitted via web camera have become
the latest and hottest development in the adult entertainment sector. The sheer scale of the industry
has confounded social commentators and is setting a new challenge to regulatory authorities. The
activities are continuously derided as pornography or prostitution, terms that according to Primetime
TV[2] (UK)?s Managing Director, are deeply injurious because of their negative connotations[3],
arguing that men have celebrated the physical beauty of women since time immemorial.

Not shying away from classical comparisons, he suggests that the Studio 66 platform has
sprung from the same impulse that inspired Botticelli to paint Venus stepping out of a shell. They
work in a different medium perhaps, and to different social mores, but there is the same
relationship between viewer and viewed, client and performer and the same frisson.

Received 23 June 2016
Revised 6 July 2016
Accepted 7 July 2016

PAGE 222 j DRUGS AND ALCOHOL TODAY j VOL. 16 NO. 3 2016, pp. 222-227, ? Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1745-9265 DOI 10.1108/DAT-06-2016-0017

Technology is driving the development of the sector and leading to adaptations. Just as the
proliferation of pirate recordings led to the revival of live concerts in the music industry, so has
the glut of freely available online porn pushed adult entertainment sector towards live interactive
erotic entertainment. It has also re-balanced power relations between service providers and
performers. ?The technology allows a performer a lot of independence. All they need is a laptop,
a web camera, a platform and a bank account. This is why you have a lot of independents
working from home or anywhere in the world they happen to be?[4].

Today?s performers are increasingly confident and mobile. They can, for instance, take their web
camera into a public space like a park or the British library and connect with their customers who
will then ask ? and pay for ? services. Feeding on such visual stimuli from a ?virtual girlfriend? the
client can act out the fantasy of having sex in the park without risk or contact.

The web camera produces a continuous stream of fresh imagery. Studies show that male
customers are always looking for fresh images, even while remaining ?loyal? to particular
performers (Moxon, 2009). Many clients are in virtual relationships as is evident in the adulation
fans pay to their favourite ?stars?.

But the medium also allows performers to ?tailor? services to customers? needs. The first is in the
attitude towards the clients. Success lies in treating clients for what they are: customers paying
good money to indulge their legitimate desire.

Part of the management?s job is to remind the staff that ?this is a customer service business and
as such the quality of the service is what determines the businesses success. The callers are not
perverts, they are customers and are someone?s father, son or brother?. As in any other service
industry making the customer feel special is key. ?It is just like going to a restaurant and being
given a great welcome by the Maitre D?.

Successful performers manage to project that positive customer care and give special attention
to their regular callers. She will, for instance, remember personal details like a nick name, the cars
he drives or his birthday. It makes him feel that she cares for him, and in a way she does. But it is
also a way of ensuring return calls, and the most skillful of the women are excellent in convincing
or deluding the client that he really is the object of her affection. A typical example would be a
daytime telephone one-on-one where as part of the ?real girlfriend experience? the client asks her
how she is doing. ?Terry! Thanks goodness you?ve called, its been so boring today, I?m so glad to
hear your voice?.

In their ?special? relationships the men can also make requests, for special items of clothing ?
a blue skirt, pink knickers, etc. ? or for certain scenarios. Sometimes the performer is sent a
script, ?what if your wife catches us? to go with a particular fantasy. At other times they want the
women to talk dirty or humiliate them.

The adaptation of technological advances where performers and clients can remain anonymous,
has opened up an entirely new arena of social intercourse, sexual gratification and economic
activity. It provides a spicy twist to virtual relationships.

While the set up has empowered performers, and especially female performers, there are
challenges for the corporate players. The model developed by Studio 66 is to combine
conventional linear TV broadcast accessible on Sky ?adult? section of the Sky electronic
programme guide (?Sky EPG?), alongside bespoke webcam interactivity into a single bundle.
Performers can use the platform of Live TV, web cams and on demand video content from the
company website to create and build a brand. They can then jointly monetise that brand from
home or any site they wish, with the option of working from the studio always available.

Constantly harassed by moral crusaders and scrutinised by intrusive regulators, the adult
entertainment industry has always been an early adopter of technological innovation. Disruptive
technological changes, like videos in the 1970[5], internet in the 2000, the webcam today, have
helped the sector avoid undue of legislative interference, but it is a cat and mouse game.

Sitting in his control room by the battery of monitors, Brendan[6], the gallery operator and
compliance officer, keeps an eye on the studios and regularly checks on the phone conversations.
Occasionally he will alert a performer by intercom to pull down a wayward dress. Brendan explains

VOL. 16 NO. 3 2016 j DRUGS AND ALCOHOL TODAY j PAGE 223

that if a girl inadvertently or not becomes too explicit, he has to switch the camera off and log the
incident to show that they immediately took action. An Ofcom report from 2013 notes a regulatory
breach when a daytime ?female presenter? was seen exposing her nipples, gyrating her hips
suggestively and caressing her inner thigh, breasts and buttocks. They informed the licensee that
they were minded to consider imposing statutory sanctions in case of recurrence[7].

The business responded with alacrity, holding meetings with performers and issuing a code of
conduct. Paul, a producer and cameraman, explains the need for caution. ?There are people
lining up to pounce on this business so we have to self-regulate?. This also means setting ceilings
of 20 minutes for callers after which they cannot renew. But the performers themselves also keep
an eye out, saying things like ?you have called me four times now, you should really hang up now?.
These defensive measures are in place to pre-empt regulatory intervention. They also give them a
sense of being cared for, which further ensures his return.

Career choices

As with many TV studios, the action takes place behind windowless walls, the irony of a media
business built on the appeal of visual imagery. Apart from the technical requirement, this hermetic
isolation helps produce the privacy required. Privacy is a contested term here, because what the
studio sells is the inversion of social norms by allowing a paying stranger to enter the bedroom of
beautiful young women and vicariously engage in the most intimate acts.

For the crew however, privacy, team spirit and a pleasant environment are preconditions for
producing a quality product. ?Many of the girls expect this to be a really sleazy place when they
first arrive. They are pleasantly surprised by what they find, the place is clean and light and
everybody is respectful?, explains Robert. He has been working with the founder since the
beginning, when they met at a different channel that was far less well organised. He has stuck
with the job for over six years now. A graduate in social anthropology who began work in the
publishing industry he never thought of becoming a ?producer? in adult entertainment. But,
he explains, ?my old position was morphing increasingly into a sales job. That was not for me,
so when this opportunity came up, I left?.

Precisely because of its ambivalent status the erotica industry is less structured than other
professions with opportunities for people short of vocational qualifications or technical expertise
that are expected elsewhere. Most of the staff came on board by accident, often joining initially
?while looking for something else? and find themselves in the same post years later. ?I am not sure
what my job actually is? Robert explains. The manager left him to come up with his own title and
he is still looking. The tangible part of this job specification is organising the rota. It is not always
easy ensuring that all the shifts are covered in a 24/7 business. But the most demanding side of
the work is looking after the performers.

?Managing a lot of women is challenging at best of times, but looking after 50 glamour models
can just be impossible?, he sighs. The downside of the around the clock business is that
someone has to be on call. Robert receives texts at all hours of the day, which also puts a strain
on his own relationship. He relishes the fact that he has managed establishing a good rapport
with the performers. To some he is a confidante and he mentions examples where he was
informed of one young woman?s pregnancy before she had told her own mother.

It is by providing some form of pastoral care that Studio 66 (see footnote 6) is managing to hold
on to their performers when the competition is becoming intense. After all, anybody can set up a
technological platform, and there is a growing volume of free erotica on the internet.

This is one of the reasons why Mick, the director of studio 66, supports better regulation.
He believes that the government?s commitment to protecting children from pornography can work
in their favour. Age verification technology will ensure that the client is likely to stay after having gone
through the process and that he is able to pay. He things further that with the requirement in place
punters are more likely to entrust their details to a reputable private company.

But beyond questions of access the regulator is also interfering with content, which Mick Jordan
thinks lamentable. The vast majority of people, in his view, have no desire to watch a model

PAGE 224 j DRUGS AND ALCOHOL TODAY j VOL. 16 NO. 3 2016

urinating into someone?s mouth, but for those who do, and provided the video was filmed
between consenting adults, let them watch it. If it is pushed underground then people will migrate
to the dark web, where the production methods may well be less civilised than at Studio 66.

The strive for respectability

The functionality of the night-time shows with striptease, ?implicit nudity?, and simulated sex is
captured by the noms de guerre adopted by regulars like ?Gonnacum?. Puzzling, however, is the
popularity of the daytime service when the girls keep their clothes on and do little other than
stretch and chat. Much of it is mundane, but some of it personal. One guy is telling Donna about
his mother who is not well and might have to go to hospital. Donna coos sympathetically and
wants to know more about the circumstances with the seconds ticking away.

To Robert this is a mystery, ?what does he think is going on there, we are not the Samaritans?.
What the customers buy into is the fantasy of being in a relationship with a stunning partner. That
is why they send letters, sometimes with photographs of themselves, as if they were in a long
distance relationship. It follows that customers try to take it further, having revealed so much
themselves and after spending a fortune on phone charges, they want a date. When this does not
happen they take their desire elsewhere. Nothing is more revealing about the capture of some of
these men than the fact that they often return at a later point. The rupture can even reinforce the
compulsion by giving it the appearance of a tiff in a normal relationship.

To the crew in the studio the explanation is loneliness and social alienation. But some of the men
are in relationships and establish camaraderie on the chat lines where they discuss the
performers. Reassuring against the backdrop of social anxiety over the alleged misogyny inherent
to pornography is the quality of the exchanges on UK Babe Channels[8]. The prevailing attitudes
are classic fandom with pretensions of connoisseurship and genuine affection. A few lines
garnered from the first page of Lola Knight?s page provide an insight into the viewer’s mindset:

? ?My personal opinion is that she is stunningly attractive, and deserved a regular place [?] But all in all.
What a babe! And what a signing by studio 66 yet again! Looking forward to this beauty more often?.

? She would have fitted in at elite, can give no higher praise than that, she is so cute, hope she is on
her own next time.

? Finally S66 have signed a proper naturally assetted nightshow performer; I was mesmerised by her
beauty, only two questions spring to mind; when is she on again and more importantly can S66
hold on to her, whatever happens she wins BOTN[9] from me[10].

Arguably this is a consequence of the quest for respectability pursued by the operators and their
engagement with the regulator. It allows performers, support crew and clients to preserve their
dignity. Writing about the US porn industry in the late 1990, David Foster Wallace noted how the
psycho dynamics of shame and self-loathing coupled with the rising acceptability of porn (sex) in
mainstream culture were pushing the industry to extremes to retain its edgy sense of
unacceptability[11]. Studio 66 illustrates a very different trajectory for adult entertainment, with the
normalisation of commercial sexuality and a pride in setting standards.

In the gallery the operator keeps an eye on the competition. A series of monitors are tuned into
competing channels like Storm Babes. Gregory speaks dismissively of their poor lighting and
inept camera work. He also reports the failure of a contracted special interest channel ?Deep filth?.
These outliers reinforce the sense of Studio 66 respectability, with in-house rules restricting nudity
(breasts) to the 11-5:30 night slot (different rules for webcam viewers).

Social attitudes still raise forbidding barriers to the carefree socialising of Studio 66 employees.
Most staff have cover stories, often pretending to be working in gambling or shopping channels,
but do run the risk of being caught out when stumbling into aficionados. For the cameramen,
producers and gallery operators social stigma and night work is the price for a rare luxury in the
media industry ? stable full time employment. For the performer, of course, the challenge is all the
harder. Most of the women therefore work part time in mainstream occupations, often as
beauticians, which provides an alternate identity.

VOL. 16 NO. 3 2016 j DRUGS AND ALCOHOL TODAY j PAGE 225

A save haven

The flexibility of the studio provides ready opportunities for women to assume a sexualised
fantasy persona without disrupting lifestyles. Bella starts her shift at 10 a.m. and works until 6 with
regular tea, toilet and lunch breaks. She is a beautiful, slim woman in her mid 20s, who works
lying on a bed in the studio. Occasionally she will throw a kiss at the camera, stretch and curl her
lovely legs asking all those ?sexy boys out there? to give her a call. She has an easy smile, wide
open eyes and an expression of being truly interested in what he is telling her. The main skill,
however, is to keep talking about very little for minutes on end. Bella?s average caller time is
7.14 minutes. Much of it will be routine, ?do you like what I am wearing?? or the customised chat
for regulars like Colin, who gets a special smile. The gift for easy patter, stunning looks and a great
deal of patience seem to be the key qualifications for Studio 66 models.

Some come from other sectors of the adult entertainment industry while others start out and stay in the
chat rooms. Most are part time like Lara who comes in from the West country to work 10-6,
overnighting in the bedroom, then working the 5:30-12:00 shift, and going home. Average earnings are
hard to calculate as each girl negotiates a different hourly rate and cuts the takings from each session
on a 40/60 basis with the studio. Some of the best performers make over 100k a year ? part time.

It?s the money that make it so hard for the girls to leave. The insularity and stigma also work against exit
strategies, moreover, a career spent posing and chatting does not help diversify the performer?s
skill set. Leaving the industry therefore means crashing from a professional income to an unskilled
hourly rate. According to Samantha, who herself has just come out of retirement, most girls cannot
do it. They are so used to the spending power they do not save up. She and her boyfriend,
a film performer, now want to save up for a mortgage, and like many a woman in her late 20s,
finds she has to go back to work.

Another obstacle to re-integration is the complex identity that comes with being a glamour model.
The adulation of their clients, the regular customers, and for some, a fan base, feeds fragile egos.
As object of myriad fantasies the girls are simultaneously superbly confident in their powers to
manipulate and yet lacking in self-esteem. Some, especially as they get older, go back to school for
better qualifications while others prepare for business, usually in the personal beauty sector. But
changes in demographics, plus good body care, are extending the life span of erotic performers.
Studio 66 has a Golden Girl channel for the over 40s and only recently retired a working girl in her 60s.

Industry futures

The commercial director of Studio 66 has strong views on the regulatory framework. He believes
there are advantages in having age and credit card checks early on at the browsing stage, as
those who persist in filling in details are more likely to convert into customers. Eliminating some of
the profusion of free pornography available on the internet is also likely to benefit the remaining,
access controlled, commercial channels. He strongly objects to interference with content,
however. While ?golden showers? may not have universal appeal, there are niche markets that
should be catered for. Overly zealous restrictions only run the risk of driving the providers
underground and the studios off shore with possibly very different working conditions and profit
sharing arrangements. Keeping the business in the UK has allowed them to create an
environment that meets high working standards without compromising the quality of the product.

The long-term future of the performers is less easy to ascertain. Spending a life time fearing
exposure, fabricating a web of pseudo identities to explain income and absences, must impose a
psychological burden. The social stigma attending to any involvement in the sector draws a veil over
successful passages out of erotica, leaving us to speculate about the successful slide into alternative
careers or the returns on invested earnings. There may well be other costs, such as arrested
personal development, or the prolonged strain of acting out a one-dimensional fantasy with little
room for self-expression. And yet, the telephone and on line relationships that the models do
establish with their clients have created a new communicative dimension that remains unexplored.

Male clients, in turn, may find that exposure to sexual titillation, feeding onanistic fantasies, may
get in the way of forming relationships. It may impede sexual development and certainly impose a
financial burden. In both cases, however, these are risks that adults need to assess for

PAGE 226 j DRUGS AND ALCOHOL TODAY j VOL. 16 NO. 3 2016

themselves. Regulators can set standards and mitigate the risk of erotic content spilling over into
wider other channels where they are more accessible. The greater stringency of controls comes
at the invariable cost of pushing the industry underground, with a more sordid product and
greater risk for models, producers or clients.

For the moment ?camming? has shifted the balance of power between performers and
?facilitators?, clients and workers, and reconfigured the relationships between punters and
performers. Eevie, a performer interviewed in Seattle last year, observed that camming has
changed sex work. ?I think it?s really humanized us. We?re not just an idea of a person, we?re
actual people. Even if you come for the fantasy and just to see boobs and stuff, you?re gonna
have to work through me first? (McGehee, 2015). Most interesting perhaps is the combination of
web camera encounters, erotic pics and videos with performance, graphic art and short stories
pioneered by Aellea[12] who has her own website. Here erotica becomes a cultivated form of
self-expression using technology as a platform for purveying a product, promoting a body
centred aesthetics and promoting a philosophical ideal. In the opening credo the artist declares
herself ?I am an INTP, a libertarian, a gun-owner and a loather of religion?. It?s a rare instance of
turning the tables on a constituency that has been persecuting the erotic art for millennia.

How the regulatory arrangements work out is quite unclear, as the arguments of reason are
conventionally drowned by apocalyptic warnings of moral decay. While this may succeed in closing
particular sites and business models the industry has always managed to adjust. For the moment,
however, camming seems to have achieved an equilibrium between performer safety, client
anonymity and a social relationship that makes good business sense with minimal external costs.

Notes

1. The performers are on their own, the erotic performances are simulated, there is no actual sex.

2. The holding company that owns the station.

3. Greek, from porne prostitute+graphein to write.

4. Interview with managing director.

5. Staff recount the popular explanation for the demise of the Betamax video format as due to the adoption
of VHS as the standard video format by the porn industry.

6. All names have been changed.

7. Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin Issue 235, 5 August 2013.

8. UK Babe Channels www.babeshows.co.uk/index.php. Studio 66 had 140,959 posts on 27 May 2016.

9. Blog of the night.

10. www.babeshows.co.uk/showthread.php?tid ? 65795
11. David Foster Wallace, 1998, Big Red Son.

12. http://profiles.myfreecams.com/Aella

References

McGehee (2015), ?Camming is not like any other kind of sex work?, The Stranger, available at: www.
thestranger.com/features/feature/2015/06/10/22360297/camming-is-not-like-any-other-kind-of-sex-work
(accessed 23 March 2016).

Moxon, S. (2009), The Woman Racket: The New Science Explaining How the Sexes Relate at Work, at Play,
and in Society, Imprint Academic, Exeter.

Corresponding author

Axel Klein can be contacted at: [email?protected]

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:
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Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction
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International Journal of Cyber Criminology
Vol 12 Issue 2 July ? December 2018

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427

Copyright ? 2018 International Journal of Cyber Criminology ? ISSN: 0974 ? 2891
July ? December 2018. Vol. 12(2): 427?438. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3366179

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief ? K. Jaishankar / Open Access (Authors / Readers No Pay Journal).

This is a Diamond Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative

Commons HTUAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)

LicenseUTH, Twhich permits unrestricted non-commercial useT, distribution, and reproduction

in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Perceptions of Revenge Pornography and Victim
Blame

Tegan S. Starr

1
& Tiffany Lavis

2

Flinders University, Australia

Abstract

The act of revenge porn occurs when someone (commonly an ex-partner) takes a sexual image and distributes
it online without the consent of the individual depicted in the image. Despite new legislation to protect victims,

revenge porn impacts many individuals who are faced with a culture of victim blaming similar to other acts of
sexual assault. The present study used revenge porn scenarios to evaluate the degree to which individuals
blame the victim and whether this is mediated by perceiving revenge porn as a betrayal. Three factors were

predicted to affect perceptions of betrayal and blame: victim-perpetrator relationship length (one month or one

year), the medium used for sexting (text message or Snapchat) and the perceiver?s level of trust in others. The

way in which the sexual image was sent did not impact perceived breach of trust or victim blame. The length
of the victim-perpetrator relationship did impact victim blame but not perceived betrayal. In line with
predictions, those with higher interpersonal trust were found to show less victim blaming which was mediated

by their higher perceptions of betrayal in an act of revenge porn. The findings contribute towards future
education initiatives to improve outcomes for victims of revenge porn.
______________________________________________________________________________
Keywords: revenge porn, victim blame, trust, betrayal, victimisation.

Background

Revenge porn (or image-based abuse) is an emerging crime area in which intimate images are
shared without the consent of the depicted individual, and with the intention to cause distress
(Bloom, 2014). When intimate images are leaked, it is often done by ex-partners who are seeking

revenge following a break up, therefore ?revenge porn? is the common term that is used to
describe non-consensual distribution of intimate images (Bloom, 2014). However, revenge porn
also occurs whereby peers, co-workers, family members or strangers distribute images in order to
purposefully cause harm and distress to the victim (Henry, Powell, & Flynn, 2017). Most of the
victims are young females, similar to other forms of sexual harassment, however males have also
been victims of revenge porn (Branch, Hillinski-Rosick, Johnson, & Solano, 2017). Commonly,

images are sent to various social media sites including Facebook, pornographic websites, ?slut-

shaming? websites, and revenge porn specific websites such as ?myex.com? (Citron & Franks,

1
Flinders University, Sturt Road, Bedford Park 5042, South Australia, Australia.
Email: [email?protected]
2
Flinders University, Sturt Road, Bedford Park 5042, South Australia, Australia.
Email: [email?protected]

Starr & Lavis ? Perceptions of Revenge Pornography and Victim Blame

? 2018 International Journal of Cyber Criminology (Diamond Open Access Journal). Under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License

428

2014; Henry et al., 2017). A recent study found that one in five Australians have experienced
some form of image-based abuse, such as threats to share images in order to receive money or
sexual favours (Henry et al., 2017). More specifically, one in ten people have had an intimate
image distributed without their consent (Branch et al., 2017; Henry et al., 2017). These
prevalence rates justify the need to address revenge porn as a serious concern.

The distribution of an image without consent can have serious consequences for the victim,
where the shame and embarrassment of having a personal image made public can further lead to
severe distress and anxiety (Citron & Franks, 2014; Franks, 2016). As many as three quarters of
individuals who have had their intimate image distributed without consent have experienced
psychological distress, including symptoms of anxiety and/or depression (Henry et al., 2017).
Some websites exploit victims, by requesting money in order to have the image taken down
(Stroud, 2014), but once an image is on the Internet it may reappear anywhere, causing more
distress for the victim (Bloom, 2014). Furthermore, since images are often distributed along with
personal details of the victim, such as full name, address and links to social media profiles, victims
are vulnerable to abuse, stalking,