Phone sex

Phone sex is a type of virtual sex that refers to sexually explicit conversation between two or more persons via telephone , especially when at least one of the participants masturbates or engages in sexual fantasy or arousal. Phone sex conversation may take many forms, including (but not limited to): guided, narrated, and enacted suggestions; sexual anecdotes and confessions; candid expression of sexual feelings or love ; and discussion of very personal and sensitive sexual topics.

Phone Sex Services

Phone Sex Workers and Patrons

Although it is not uncommon for distanced lovers to engage in phone sex, most phone sex sessions involve a paying customer and a paid professional. A phone sex worker is a type of sex worker and erotic actor , sometimes referred-to as "phone actor (actress),” “fantasy artist,” “adult phone entertainer,” “audio erotic performer,” or any one of dozens of other monikers. The most valued attributes of a phone sex professional are his or her voice , acting and/or sexual roleplay skills, along with the experienced ability to discern and respond appropriately to a broad spectrum of customer requests.

Contrary to popular belief, phone sex workers rarely masturbate during a client session; rather, they may vocally simulate masturbation, sexual intercourse, and/or engage in sexual roleplaying scenarios catering to the particular sexual fetish or request of their client. Often these requests involve taboo topics that paying customers cannot engage in during real life sexual encounters due to moral and legal ramifications, lack of physical ability, or the fear of social stigma.

Prior to the mid 1990's, tabootopics that would be considered illegal if practiced in real life (pedophilia, animal abuse, real rapes) were not a part of the accepted business practice. A customer could expect to be banned from using a service if he attempted to chat about these topics. Even today, many phone sex operators and companies adhere to an ethical standard regarding this and do not indulge callers in topics which involve the discussion of children or animals. In the UK and some other countries, these topics are specifically illegal to discuss with callers.

Phone sex and the phone sex worker thus provide a semi-anonymous outlet for such unconventional inclinations with little or no consequence beyond the fee involved in the exchange. The vast majority of phone sex sessions, however, are not so exotic, and primarily focus on depictions of traditional sex acts.

The most obvious purpose of commercial phone sex may seem to be to provide people with a live masturbation aid, but a select clientele relies on phone sex as a vehicle for revealing intimate thoughts and feelings to a neutral stranger. Phone sex patrons are overwhelmingly male and for many of these men it is important for their confessor to be a woman, especially when their confessions involve BDSM roles, cross-dressing, pegging, infantilism or homosexual fantasies. It is not uncommon for people to resort to phone sex as an alternative to revealing their secret desires to a therapist, significant other, or friend.

In effect, the phone sex worker is a surrogate called upon to serve in various roles or capacities specific to each client. In certain cases, a patron may not need a confidant for sexual stimulation, but may simply wish to hear another person's voice, or want to fulfill some other need, such as a sense of nurturing, sympathy, camaraderie, or other form of emotional intimacy.

Phone sex services primarily market to men or women of a particular sexual orientation, and focus on mainstream sexual experiences. Specialized companies also cater to clients who have a certain sexual predilection (e.g., zoophilia, coprophilia, domination/submission, humiliation) or an erotic interest in a specific group (nurses, firemen, college students, older/younger figures, ethnic minorities, etc.). It is not at all unusual for a phone sex service to employ a staff of phone sex performers to meet both mainstream and exotic customer requests. The panoply of specialized phone sex services available and the vast variety of sexual topics submitted to phone sex workers, reflect the incredibly broad spectrum of human sexual behavior , and are indicative of the general need for a sociosexual outlet which mainstream society often fails to provide.

Phone Sex as a Business

Although early for-profit phone sex services were comprised of a call center where phone sex performers worked in somewhat standard office settings, most of today’s phone sex services are a managed network of dispatchers and erotic performers who process payment information, verify the legal age of their clients, and perform calls in their own homes on their own telephone lines. The vast majority of modern services use toll-free numbers whereby clients can dial up to request a call with a particular performer using credit cards, automated clearing house systems, and a variety of other billing methods. There are still some services that rely upon premium rate telephone numbers (e.g. 900 numbers)for billing purposes, although this practice has been largely abandoned due to the high rate of fraud associated with these lines. Some telephone companies also allow their customers to block outgoing calls to premium rate telephone numbers. Depending on the service, frequency, and method of calling, phone sex can be very expensive.

Like other sex industries, the phone sex industry has taken on new dimensions in the Internet age. There is an ever-growing community of independent phone sex operators who engage in self-promotion. This self-promotion can involve a personalized website where the phone sex performer lists their specialties and services, various methods of advertising (via the traditional methods listed below, or on organized third-party network sites that provide a basic level of privacy for performer and client alike) and/or surfing of sexually themed chat rooms for interested clients. This increase in independent operators is largely due to the fact that information regarding the business is being filtered to the mainstream public. The once close-lipped industry, traditionally inaccessible to amateurs is experiencing a demystification period and resource sites, community forums, and reference materials are more readily available.

In countries where phone sex is legal, phone sex service providers typically advertise their services in men's magazines ,pornographic magazines and videos, and on late-night cable television (although more and more advertising is being targeted online.) These advertising methods almost invariably target men, the primary consumers of phone sex services.

In the past it was widely believed that phone sex services engaged in shoddy age and billing verification practices due to that fact that people often complained to telephone and credit card companies they didn’t recognize the charges for these adult services. This was especially true when premium numbers were widely utilized by the industry. Often such charges were blamed on children illegally accessing the services, or other fraudulent sources.

More often than not, however, these reports were the result of customers who felt embarrassed when the charges appeared in print, who did not wish to reveal their activity to a significant other or who simply did not wish to pay the charges they had incurred. Today, however, to remain in good standing with their billing processors, most phone sex services are obligated to take extra care to verify proper billing identities and customer ages. However, the reputation as an outlet for fraudulent activity has remained with the phone sex industry (as with other types of sex industry professions), causing many credit card issuers and billing processors to reject or revoke phone sex businesses for merchant accounts, even where no history of fraud exists. This social stigma is furthered by occurrences on record in which public figures have suffered scandal and career damage when their phone sex activities were disclosed.

Phone Sex as a Type of Virtual Sex

Phone sex is the older cousin of cybersex and sexual bluechatting. However, unlike phone sex, it is unusual for someone to pay for cybersex and there is a very small market for sexual bluechatting (sex text messaging).

There is never any physical interaction between a phone sex worker and a phone sex patron; most phone sex interactions between real life physical partners are performed over distances when the opportunity for physical intimacy is not practical or available. Moreover, phone sex should also not be confused with prostitution wherein money is exchanged for real-life sexual services or physical interactions.

Due to the emotional intimacy often created between those who engage in phone sex, it is a matter of some debate whether phone sex is to be considered a form of infidelity when involving a person outside of a committed personal relationship.

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